Theos-Talk Archives (July 2000 Message tt00029)

Napster program which allows any user on the network to locate a song on
any other user and transfer it to the local hard disk is revolutionizing
the music industry since every user cooperatively make what they have on
their computer available to thousands of other users on the Internet. The
music industry has no control over the whole process and it opens up for
upcoming musicians to distribute their works bypassing the big music giants
who have a lock over whose music is available on CDs and how it is packaged
and for what price it is sold.

The technological approach taken by Napster is not new. It has just been
implemented on the Internet. The future implications is enormous. Books,
videos or anything else digitized and stored in a computer file can be made
available from users to users cooperatively. Of course there is going to be
some financial pain for the creators and the companies which currently sell
them to the users.

The current battle going on in the courts and in the congress and public PR
 centers around copyright issues. But again Internet as a very powerful
communication tool at the fingertips is going to make enormous info
available to anyone who is interested.

Luckily, copyright on all the theosophical classics have expired. May be it
was planned to be so; so that the poor and rich can have access to it
immediately and for free. Most of the classics are already available on the
net. Broadband access coupled with low cost local printing will enable
everyone to print the books at home. Are we ready to take advantage of it?

While we may be dealing with Ancient Wisdom, we do not have to get tied
down to quill and paper. Need to move on and use the modern tools much as
we use telephone, fax, computers, jet planes etc. 

I think, theosophical "leaders" perhaps due to their ignorance or fear of
losing control (just this maillist is an example - no one has control
except the owner who is rarely seen),  or whatever other reasons (???) have
not taken the initiative to use the Internet technology in an active way,
and that may itself generate causes which reduce the relevance of
organizations to the spread of theosophy.

Keep tuned. More exciting things are going to happen. In the meanwhile let
each one of us see what we can do.

mkr


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