"Surely if Gnutella develops into a viable (and free) alternative, but with no central server to take the legal heat, Napster's proposed business model (paid access) will fail."
- I would like to differ here; BearShare for instance is a Gnutella client which is free as in speech and free as in beer, and the reports are that it is stable so I would call it viable. From what I've heard, though, it's still not popular and so is somewhat vexing to use since many songs are not available.
"Another potential competitor or successor to Napster is OpenNAP. Since most existing Napster clients can select what server they connect to, and since there is a free software clone of Napster server, anyone on the Internet can theoretically open up a small competitor or successor to Napster."
- One link I skimmed on I think slashdot said that Napster had banned OpenNap clients from its servers somehow. I'm trying to find it again now. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/06/28/079211&mode=thread But I'm thinking now that maybe I'm missing something. . . .
there are other server networks than napsters own. napigator finds them, amongst others.
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