Napsterization.org was created as a resource to understand the napsterization by digital media of analog, old economy institutions, frameworks and media.

It is an academic exercise, a opportunity to understand how many people use digital media, a meeting place for people to connect over their experiences with digital media, and a place for others to learn about these issues. This site is also a repository of stories on positive uses of peer-to-peer file sharing as well as a resource of information supporting these principles

Napsterization is a term that comes up repeatedly in everyday usage by those talking about the disintermediation of incumbent media and businesses, systems and people's understanding of culture and information, social networks, political institutions and journalism. But with disintermediation in hierarchical systems by the digital, the interconnectedness of the network also grows. Napsterization encompasses all of these phenomena.

Napsterization.org's blog focuses on positive, fair-use and legal examples of peer-to-peer file sharing of works approved by their creators for sharing, helpful in learning about works that are then lawfully purchased, or otherwise considered fair use under the "fair use doctrine" in American copyright law or the copyright laws of other countries.

The blog also gives examples of digital expression's disintermediating and decentralizing effects on old analog systems and institutions, as well as analysis and opinion. It also focuses on the news ways digital media can bring together users and experiences.

As such, visitors to the site are encouraged to post their stories, anonymously if they wish, of interesting discoveries they have made of creative works using any disruptive technology, including P2P.

EDITOR

Mary Hodder
Is a graduate student at UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems, though she works on projects in three other departments: Boalt Law School, Journalism and Haas School of Business. She is a member of the Samuelson Clinic for Law, Technology and Public Policy, and works on Chilling Effects matters as well as project on RFID and sensor networks.

She has been the primary author of the Berkeley Intellectual Property Weblog, which came out of a Fall, 2002 Journalism department class. She has also worked on the Big Story Magazine produced at the JSchool, on the subject of Security and Privacy, writing You are Your Digital Identity, for both the paper and digital magazines.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS:

Eddan Katz
Eddan Katz is currently a Resident Fellow with the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Eddan received his J.D. at Boalt Hall School of Law in Berkeley in 2002, where he received the Sax Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy for his public interest work with the Samuelson Clinic for Law, Technology, and Public Policy for his role in helping create the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. After graduation, he was a full-time research associate for Prof. Pamela Samuelson as a visiting scholar at the School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS) at Berkeley. Eddan received his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale in 1993, where he wrote his thesis on Ethics and the Holocaust.

He published Revolution is not an AOL Keyword on the Berkeley Intellectual Property weblog, which has since been made into a T-shirt through the public domain license under which it was released.

With Thanks to:
Abe Burmeister
Anita Wilhelm
Dan Silverstein
Scot Hacker