John Fanning's Blog

My life tips

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:54:00 +0000

1. Change yourself.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn't have - or maybe even have thought about - while stuck in your old thought patterns.

And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for.
You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.

"Nobody can hurt me without my permission."

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a "normal" or a common way to react to different things. But that's mostly just all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don't have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.

And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

Fighting evil with evil won't help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won't help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You'll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.

If you don't forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren't going anywhere.

"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.

And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.

So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

You can check out a few effective tips to overcome this problem in
How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips. Or you can move on to the next point for more on the best tip for taking more action that I have found so far.

5. Take care of this moment.

"I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following."

The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don't worry about the next moment that you can't control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences - or reflecting on past failures - of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.

Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit - a sort of muscle - that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

6. Everyone is human.

"I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps."

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."

When you start to make myths out of people - even though they may have produced extraordinary results - you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it's important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.

And I think it's important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you.

It's also important to remember this to avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.

7. Persist.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.

Find what you really like to do. Then you'll find the inner motivation to keep going, going and going. You can also find a lot of useful tips on how keep your motivation up in How to Get Out of a Motivational Slump and 25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself.

One reason Gandhi was so successful with his method of non-violence was because he and his followers were so persistent. They just didn't give up.

Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don't get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn't the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal.
This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in. A world full of magic pill solutions where advertising continually promises us that we can lose a lot of weight or earn a ton of money in just 30 days. You can read more about this in One Big Mistake a Whole Lot of People Make.

Finally, one useful tip to keep your persistence going is to listen to Gandhi's third quote in this article and keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.

8. See the good in people and help them.

"I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others."

"Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men."

"I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people."

There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.

And when you see the good in people it becomes easier to motivate yourself to be of service to them. By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger.

By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger. A few articles that may provide you with useful advice in that department are Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation?
and Dale Carnegie's Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Social Skills. Or you can just move on to the next tip.

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."

I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.

When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language - some say they are over 90 percent of communication - in alignment with your words.

With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you're saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.

Also, if your actions aren't in alignment with what you're communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do. And other people's belief in you too.

10. Continue to grow and evolve.

"Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position."

You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.

Sure, you may look inconsistent or like you don't know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically. But if you don't then you will, as Gandhi says, drive yourself into a false position. A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It's not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.

Quote of the day

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:08:00 +0000

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

"We measure performance not effort."
– Jamie Coulter

"Never, never, never give up."
- Winston Churchill.

How to build trust

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:48:00 +0000

How to build trust :

T=IC/R

T= Trust

I= Frequency of Interaction (times) Chemistry

C= Credibility (how much value someone receives from each contact)

R= Risk

My accounts on myspace, facebook and twitter

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:58:00 +0000

You can find me on Myspace www.myspace.com/gninnaf

You can find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/gninnaf

You can find me on Twitter www.twitter.com/gninnaf

What’s the Big Idea?

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:25:00 +0000

The other day a friend of mine asked, “What technology do you think will have the greatest impact on our lives over the next 10 years?” I thought this was a great question. I’m in the habit of thinking about technology evolution in terms of four or five years, so ten years allows for two cycles and many more possibilities.
My immediate thoughts ran to exciting areas within clean technology, such as improvements in energy production—coal gasification, solar or even wind power; and to better drugs and non-invasive medical devices that will tackle diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, obesity, or other conditions I might face.
My friend asked, “But don’t you invest in IT?” Right, I was a bit embarrassed to admit that none of my immediate ideas were in the IT realm. After a few minutes of thought, my best candidate to compete with the amazing progress being made on the clean tech and healthcare fronts was the deployment of true mobile broadband computing and the capabilities it will enable.
Yes, people talked about mobile broadband ten years ago, but today there’s a convergence of technology and behavioral trends that will cause extraordinary changes in the way people think about and use wireless devices.
In my view, there are four trends that will accelerate the adoption and widespread use of mobile broadband.
The first is improved user interfaces and performance (computing power and bandwidth). The iPhone provides a powerful example of today’s possibilities and points toward what’s to come.
The second trend relates to affordability for service and bandwidth. Major U.S. carriers have just announced $100/month unlimited voice plans, but their secondary offerings, such as $20 unlimited data plans, will have an even greater impact. In ten years, most Americans will be able to afford unlimited consumption of the wireless broadband internet for any use.
The third trend, one we’re already witnessing, is a shift toward more open platforms for wireless application developers and users. Google set the bar with Android, and Apple just released its iPhone software development kit.
The last trend, influenced by social networking, is society’s shift toward greater trust and acceptance of sharing personal information—such as location, age, gender, lifestyle, and brand orientation—in exchange for valuable offers or the opportunity to build new relationships or become part of an affinity group.
All of these trends will translate into even more innovation when you consider the level of context that can be provided by personal mobile devices operating from dispersed, identifiable locations.
As Napster co-founder John Fanning recently told me, all internet businesses are the same—it’s just about moving data from one place to another while creating the highest possible value from the data. As privacy and security issues are addressed and personal information such as location is (selectively) available, the value of moving information in real time will increase dramatically. The ability for nearly anyone at any time to use rich media for communication, entertainment, selling, or simply sharing information will change not just how we do our jobs, but how we keep in touch and meet new people. Over the next ten years, the wireless broadband Web has the potential to surpass the wired broadband Web in terms of how it impacts our lives.
Virtual activities will become real activities as better information such as detailed product features or personal credibility is shared in real time. You may start a purchase in your car via a video conferencing session and end by meeting a salesperson who completes the transaction in person. Social networking will spill into the real world. Given the right set of conditions, you might be willing to meet someone in a quasi-serendipitous manner on a business trip or even a vacation. You’ll be able to know if one of your friends is in the gym or supermarket while you’re there and you’ll even know if he has time for lunch.
You may surprise your mother by sending a new video of your kids taken from your phone to the electronic picture frame in her living room or car console. On the other hand, you may or may not want to be notified by a video alert that your kids are hosting a pool party while you’re out of town. In either event, mobile broadband will help you stay connected to those things that are important to you.
And the best part is that new business models will enable much of this to be free. Although users will self-select plans that work for them, for many who are willing to participate in targeted advertising and lead generation programs, that participation will support their use of these services entirely. Naturally, many people will opt out of sharing personal information and for those people there will continue to be a cat and mouse game in which advertisers attempt to figure out their profiles and intentions. Wireless broadband will make even this matching problem more productive for everyone. The good news is that my wife (an active consumer) will get free service (as will my kids, who will be in their formative brand-adoption years). The bad news is that I will probably need to pay for my wireless device.
Bob Hower is a general partner with Advanced Technology Ventures and focuses on investments in the IT infrastructure and software and services sectors.

In Defense of John Fanning

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:05:00 +0000

Napster is back, but in name only. Back in April I linked to an excerpt from Joseph Menn's All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster, which includes a not terribly flattering portrait of Shawn Fanning's uncle John Fanning. John Chamberlain objects to the characterization in an email:

Hi Mr. Olsen, I noticed that in April you excerpted from the book "All the
Rave" that details John Fanning's role in the rise of Napster.

When I was a young man I was a close friend who worked for John at some of
his business ventures before he got involved with his nephew Shawn and in
some ways was the prototype for his later relationship with Shawn.

John Fanning was not only one of the best bosses I ever had, but the best
friend as well. He was uniformly and unconditionally supportive of me and
believed in me when noone else would have. He was incredibly generous not
only to me, but to everyone I ever saw him come into contact with. He gave
the shirt off his back to me and the others who worked for him at Cambridge
Automation and Multimedia Engineering. I got my first real job at Fidelity
because of John and my first hard core programming experience all on John's
nickel.

I had a lot of advantages John did not. I came from a well-off family and
graduated from Princeton, yet I happily enjoyed working for John, cast as a
bankrupt drop-out from the ghettoes of Brockton by the book. Why? Because
he is one of the nicest, most honest and supportive persons I ever met.

I think the way Joseph Menn twisted the Napster story and blackened John to
sensationalize his work comes from the worst traditions of yellow journalism.

I think the way he quotes New York VCs calling John a "putz" and looking
down on him because he doesn't wear their $800 suits is particularly
despicable. Menn presents John as some kind of financial rapist and the all
the various VCs that came later as would-be saviours. What a travesty!
Where were all those VCs when Shawn was trying to pay his board and tuition
at Northeastern? Did they believe in Shawn and pay to feed him? Did they
drive him around and support him when he just a kid? Did they nurture his
ideas and show how to make those ideas work? No, John did. John has a heart
of gold and sense of honor. None of those VCs even hold a candle to him as
a man and I am deeply insulted by the way Joseph Menn puts snakes like them
above him.

To me John is a hero who exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that
built this country and whose devotion to his family and friends deserves
the highest admiration.

- John S. Chamberlain, Natick, Massachusetts

Fair and balanced we are.

Buying experiences, not possessions, leads to greater happiness

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:46:00 +0000

Can money make us happy if we spend it on the right purchases? A new psychology study suggests that buying life experiences rather than material possessions leads to greater happiness for both the consumer and those around them. The findings will be presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting on Feb. 7.

The study demonstrates that experiential purchases, such as a meal out or theater tickets, result in increased well-being because they satisfy higher order needs, specifically the need for social connectedness and vitality -- a feeling of being alive.

"These findings support an extension of basic need theory, where purchases that increase psychological need satisfaction will produce the greatest well-being," said Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University.

Participants in the study were asked to write reflections and answer questions about their recent purchases. Participants indicated that experiential purchases represented money better spent and greater happiness for both themselves and others. The results also indicate that experiences produce more happiness regardless of the amount spent or the income of the consumer.

Experiences also lead to longer-term satisfaction. "Purchased experiences provide memory capital," Howell said. "We don't tend to get bored of happy memories like we do with a material object.

"People still believe that more money will make them happy, even though 35 years of research has suggested the opposite," Howell said. "Maybe this belief has held because money is making some people happy some of the time, at least when they spend it on life experiences."

"The mediators of experiential purchases: Determining the impact of psychological need satisfaction" was conducted by Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University and SF State graduate Graham Hill.

microsoft joke

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:51:00 +0000

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.

Bill Gates

GM response.

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash……..Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.

John

Yasser Seirawan Joins NetGames

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Yasser Seirawan, Highest Ranked US Chess GrandMaster, Joins NetGames as President of Chess Division

Hull, Massachusetts. NetGames, announced that Yasser Seirawan has joined the company as President of their Chess Division and of their Chess.net site. Mr. Seirawan is the highest ranked American chess grandmaster both nationally and internationally and has been President of International Chess Enterprises for the past 10 years. Mr. Seirawan has authored numerous books and articles on the history, strategy and tactics of chess. He has recently competed in international tournaments in Bali, Bermuda and the Netherlands.

"Yasser comes to us with strong business skills, great ambassador credentials, and an intimate knowledge of the chess world," stated John Moore, CEO of NetGames. "We believe for our entire lineup of classical games he will be influential, but his impact on our successful chess site and business is unquestioned. He has been selling chess products for over a decade, authored the award winning Play Winning Chess series published by Microsoft Press and has been an international competitor of merit for a lengthy time. He brings authenticity and credibility to our site. We look for him to jump start our scholastic leagues, our instructional efforts and our event broadcasts."

John Fanning, the founder of NetGames and other successful internet companies such as Napster.com and NetMovies.com added, "I am a chess enthusiast. Having someone with Yasser's stature join us is certainly a positive. He joins former world champion Anatole Karpov and famed chess trainer Roman Dzindzichashvili and our other grandmasters to give us a most prestigious on line presence and wealth of knowledgeable content possibilities. Plus his business experience in this field gives us strong leadership in our most mature gaming area and the one with considerable international growth prospects."

"The internet is a wonderful medium for the world's chess players," stated Mr.Seirawan. "I myself have played friends from around the globe from my home in an evening in matches that used to take weeks by fax. NetGames and Chess,net are in the forefront of this electronic revolution. They have great technology and a dynamic focus. I hope I am able to add to it and lead the Chess division to a preeminent position in the near future. It is very exciting."

NetGames Inc is a Delaware corporation and maintains the NetGames.com site on the internet. It offers a vast array of classical, interactive, action and puzzle games to its users. Its trademark games include Chess.net, Backgammon.net, Cards.net among others. It was founded in January, 2000 and has grown already to over 300,000 regular, registered users with an average 45 minute stay on the site. NetGames has recently added a plethora of solitaire and puzzle games to their lineup.

letter to Mr Branson

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:43:00 +0000

Dear Mr Branson

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it: [see image 1, above].

I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in: [see image 2, above].

I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.

I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this: [see image 3, above].

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.

Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation: [see image 4, above].

It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.

I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.

Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on: [see image 5, above].

I apologise for the quality of the photo, it’s just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson’s face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel: [see image 6, above].

Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I’d had enough. I was the hungriest I’d been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.

My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations: [see image 7, above].

Yes! It’s another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.

Richard…. What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baoji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your Baoji-mustard.

So that was that Richard. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.

As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to its knees and begging for sustenance.

Yours Sincerely

john

The day the music died.

john@netcapital.com (Fanning) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:27:00 +0000

Steve Jobs is right: music should be free. All sound recordings should be free. When the greatest American heroes, the first Americans, gave up their homes and their lives to make our world a better place, they left behind a powerful and more complete message than the one recently voiced by Mr. Jobs: Speech should be free.

In the complex reality of today’s media, that message has been lost. Can my words, for instance, be printed in The New York Times? Sadly, no—I can’t economically justify the cost of a full-page ad. I know that I can publish on the Internet and hope.

My name on the Internet is Fanning. I am john@johnfanning.com. I was the Founding Chairman and CEO of Napster. I started the company in 1999 with my nephew, Shawn, who quickly became the public face of Napster. Shawn is both one of the smartest and nicest people I know. Unfortunately, our company was killed just two years into its existence by a Federal Court judge, with no subsequent reprieve from the Supreme Court. Our message at trial, and at work, was that that Internet has the power to set music free—not just free in the economic sense (as the cost of distribution is virtually eliminated), but more importantly, free in the sense of freely available.

I recall the day, in 1999, when my son, John, returned from school with a project due on Dr. Martin Luther King. Though just in middle school, he was to give a prepared presentation on Dr. King in front of the entire school on the following day. He was well-read and well-prepared. I asked him if he had ever actually heard Dr. King give his speech. He said, “No, how could I possibly do that?” He had of course read a transcription instead. I immediately downloaded Dr. King’s speech from Napster. We sat and listened together. I was proud to have been a part of making that possible.

While true that I was never interested in helping Metallica to make their message more readily available to our youth, it is also true that many great Americans have chosen to deliver their messages in the powerful form of powerful music. And it was undoubtedly our aim to set their messages free in the form of Mp3.

“What they don’t understand, or they can’t control, humans will kill.”— Fanning

That simple truth, one demonstrated by the death of Napster, seems wired into our DNA. I doubt a simple letter can change that. What can change that, or help establish a collective understanding, is the free flow of ideas. Until it does, it is control that is required to save the lives of the world’s most important messages. The music companies require control over the economics of those messages. Digital rights management software (DRM) presently gives them control over both the economics and the flow. You can ask them to voluntarily give that up—quite frankly, they never will. Good luck trying.

The structure of American Government, however, another gift from our Founding Fathers, can be the solution to establishing free flow within an economic framework that satisfies content owners. Through our representative democracy, a collective understanding, debated and established amongst some of the most profound and best educated-thinkers our country has raised, can shape the controls under which the rest of us live.

My first exposure to Senator Orin Hatch came while watching the Senate Judiciary argue the merits of impeaching President Bill Clinton. It seemed to me that the great institution of the American Presidency was being decimated by those who felt the moral integrity of the President did not meet the high standards required to hold that office. That idea was one I didn’t completely understand. When Hatch explained, however, that he was a writer, producer, and performer of Christian music, and that the messages of his music could not be published under a system that favors the messages of bands with less wholesome, if more popular, messages, I did understand. Over 95% of the music and sound recordings available on Napster on a per-title basis were not copyrighted by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Senator Hatch, and 95% of the art and ideas made available on the net, needed Napster to set their messages free.

Collectively, Americans understand the power of what we have all invented. Individually, copyright-holders are still struggling. It is collectively, then, that America’s lawmakers can institute a relevant statutory license for music, and set those messages free. A statutory license would insure that artists would be entitled to compensation for every MP3 file transferred without the need to negotiate licenses. Music would be free (as in freely available) and every artist no matter how small would be compensated for their work. That statutory license might be the last hope for an industry that will otherwise quickly disappear. Ironically, they will fight it to the death.
Another great institution, American movies, faces the same challenge. Sadly, they are doing no better. I have personally tried hard to license the messages of John Stewart from the Daily Show, Star Wars by George Lucas, and most of the other formal studio content—all with little luck. If you’re interested in true irony, try licensing Steve Jobs’s content from Disney. Let’s just say it was much easier for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series. The task of licensing content in America today is insurmountable, and requiring it will kill the very industries demanding it.

While Google makes John Stewart’s messages available, Senator Diane Feinstein of California calls for a revocation of consumers’ rights to time-shift. Are the 100s of millions of Americans using Google and the Internet still criminals, Senator? I think not. Our great industries—music, movies, technology—are depending on you to understand and evolve. It would seem that our Founding Fathers understood that well ahead of their time. The time for statutory licensing is here, and the message is clear. I only hope that one voice lost on the Internet can be heard again.