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Angry Napster users and people tired of all the back and forth
between the company and the music industry are voicing their
displeasure.
Two days after Napster denied
access to 317,377 people who Metallica claims are illegally
offering its music for trade, the creator of a user-run Napster
support site said he has been blocked from using the service because
he provides links to an open-source website.
"Napster is fighting against censorship, but they are trying to
censor everybody else," said Diego Hayes, a London-based computer
consultant. "All my messages on the forum were erased. There were
over 400 messages. I get about 1,000 messages a day from people, and
suddenly I didn't exist anymore."
Hayes runs Naphoria, a
non-commercial website where people can learn how to access Napster
from outside the United States. The site also provides links to
other commercial file-sharing applications such as Scour Exchange.
But when Hayes added a link to Napigator, a website promoting
open-source programming that allows people to create clones of the
Napster software, he said he was denied entry into Napster's system.
"I've been supporting Napster for quite some time, but they have
stopped supporting me," Hayes said. "It's like they think that I'm
trying to get a piece of the pie, only they don't have any
moneymaking business plan."
But Napster spokesman Dan Wool said the company wouldn't ban
anyone because of a link to an open-source website. The only reason
someone would be denied access would be if they were pirating music
files, Wool said.
On Thursday, Napster user Tamara BaVincio said that she was
unfairly denied access to the system despite having no music on her
hard drive.
BaVincio and other users denied access can challenge
the validity of the ban.
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