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Do you remember Napster? They went all in on getting traction, succeeded, then got crushed by the music industry. Ignoring the law only works if you are bankrol
by esafak 2y ago
Do you remember Napster? They went all in on getting traction, succeeded, then got crushed by the music industry. Ignoring the law only works if you are bankrolled. Don't try this at home, kids.
- BobbyJo 2y agoYes, but how did things work out for the founders?
- sroussey 2y agoOr the founders of Uber and Lyft? Legal gray area. They could have waited years and years and tried to get laws passed to allow their business to function with a clean slate of legality, but bureaucrats would have never allowed it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sillyfluke 2y agoThis is kind of an amusing point to consider since we were talking about Kim Dotcom's extradition just moments ago. So is the point to try it if you've got Napster level success but not Megaupload level success? And since there is no way to know which level of success you are going to achieve beforehand, the note of caution still makes sense I guess?
- BobbyJo 2y agoKim Dotcom made the mistake of not knowing when to quit. Napster shut down when it got told to shut down. Megaupload hopped around hoping to outsmart the law after it was told to shut down, and the executive branch doesn't let that go.
- nothercastle 2y agoHe also tried his hand at politics with musk level finesse. That didn’t help
- petesergeant 2y agoThat’s why you’ve heard of Napster, and Shawn and Sean have money.
- esafak 2y agoI've heard of other failed companies too; that's not saying much. Did the founders make money off Napster? How?
- pas 2y agoostensibly Napster is the exception that makes the rule, etc.
- stale2002 2y agoNapster is an amazing example. They are a massive success story. Sean Parker is doing great. It worked out for him. So the point stands. If you get serious traction, the worst that can happen is your current company goes under, years down the line, after you have cashed out and you then fail upwards into being a successful tech celebrity. This is all a much better outcome than nobody caring about your product, as you "followed the rules", hampered yourself, and ended up with zero users.
- ninkendo 2y agoAs Sean Parker's character in The Social Network's line reads: "You want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLgpUEpaUVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLgpUEpaUVs
- tbrownaw 2y ago> If you get serious traction, the worst that can happen is your current company goes under Of course if you really piss off the wrong people, you'll get smeared and maybe even framed for more things than you actually did before being arrested.
- xyzwave 2y ago"You wanna buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?" https://youtu.be/pLgpUEpaUVs?si=WXciPD8BuEgP5nMe https://youtu.be/pLgpUEpaUVs?si=WXciPD8BuEgP5nMe
- tim333 2y agoTheir problem wasn't starting like that. It's that they should have pivoted to being more youtube like - allow takedowns, pay creators etc.