Ted Nugent's recent Wall Street Journal article on Napster is now required reading!

Ted Nugent's recent Wall Street Journal article on Napster is now required reading! Law and economics students at the University of Texas will be studying Nugent's highly touted piece in classes taught by Professor Roger Meiners.

Meiners, who focuses on legal and ethical issues, cites Nugent's piece, JamJacking, as an excellent summation of the Napster debate.

"Nugent tells an important story in a pleasing way--a personal touch surrounds the principle at stake--protection of private property, which includes music and other forms of intellectual property," states Meiners. "He make the point in a very readable and humorous way that can get the message across to non-traditional readers of publications such as the Wall Street Journal."

Nugent sums it up this way "I didn't need anyone to explain to me whether selling or giving away someone else's products was right or wrong. Common sense is alive and well in America if you're not stoned, drunk, greedy or just plain stupid. To think that anyone could even argue that Napster has the right to give away an artist's product is ridiculous."

Some folks disagreed with what Ted had to say...

March 15, 2001
Letters to the Editor
The Wall Street Journal

Dear Editor:

It seems that when not shooting marmots, Ted Nugent enjoys posturing himself like some kind of Ayn Randian philosopher. In my opinion, the Tuesday March 13th essay by Mr. Nugent, presented an unfair view of Napster. The file-sharing computer program that allows people to trade music online has been viciously accused and persecuted as being a scourge for the recoding industry. The truth is that this new technology delivered the Internet's promise of parity and gave garage bands a chance to release their music to a closed industry. Metallica used to be of this ilk but has since turned to suing their fans that use Napster.

Artists that are campaigning for Napster's elimination, such as Dr. Dre and Ted Nugent, should realize they are acting as a mouthpiece for the media cartel's scheme....

[Edited, to read the full letter, please visit the link]

Lloyd Kaufman - President, Troma Entertainment, Inc.