I know none of my enlightened readers have fallen prey to Napster’s sales pitch, but there’s no doubt that deception is at the root of the promotion of their subscription service.
For those that don’t know, Napster’s subscription services grants you access to unlimited downloads of Windows Media tracks, so long as you subscribe to the service. What Napster counts on you to take for granted is that you entire music collection obtained through the service vanishes the moment you cancel your subscription.
What’s more, under the regular subscription you are allowed to listen to the track on up to three computers but no portable players. You aren’t even allowed to burn songs to CDs. For the privilege of listening to your rented music on a compatible portable device, you must subscribe to the additional Napster To Go service.
Now, unless you read the Terms and Conditions, you don’t know that even as a subscriber you can lose music if Napster’s licensing agreement with the publisher changes. As Napster turns its head on reports of successful, and even easy hacking of its DRM, labels have a right to pull Napster’s license, leaving customers with unlimited downloads of nothing but Jimmy Whiz and the Boneheads.
According to the FTC’s definition of honesty in advertising, you are responsible for what your customer understands, not what you say. This makes Napsters ‘omissions’ dangerous. So, for all involved its better to call it what it is (renting music) and avoid it like the plague.
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March 14th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
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