Daily Trojan - October 6, 2000 Gore And Bush Take Sides On Napster by RAYMOND LEW The following is an unofficial transcript of Tuesday's presidential debate. Moderator Jim Lehrer: An important group of voters this year is the 18-to-25-year-old demographic; one of the most heated issues concerning this group is the file-swapping software, Napster. What is your stance on Napster? Mr. Vice President, we'll start with you. Vice President Gore: Jim, let me first say that music is an instrumental part of our daily lives, no pun intended (giggle). Without the great works of Mozart, The Beatles or even Radiohead, our society would be lacking too much in joy, and too little in dead silence. My stance on Napster is that I feel the software creates an unfair partition between the rich and the poor. Let me give you one quick example. There's a young man here tonight named Eli Meyerhoff. He's 20-years-old. He has no friends and has a computer with a slow modem. For Eli, music is his only means of solace in the world. However, due to his slow connection speed, it takes hours before he hears the latest tune by the 504 Boyz or Outkast or Nelly. Meanwhile, wealthier children across the country are using computers with DSL lines, T3 connections and cable to download new music within minutes, seconds even. These children can download hundreds of MP3s before little Eli can even say, "Can I get a what-what?" Thus, the issue at hand does not hinge upon the legality of Napster — that is for the courts to decide. The issue at hand hinges upon the ramifications that this technology will have on our community and on the American public — on how we can change our current situation, bringing all people up to the same standard and not pushing them down to the lowest common denominator. This is more an issue of the have's versus the have-not's than anything else. Lehrer: OK, and you Governor-- Gore: Jim, let me just give one more quick example. There is a young lady in the audience tonight by the name of Kara Kalenius from Oregon. Kara is 21-years-old. She too has a slow Internet connection. She likes Elliott Smith and Sunny Day Real Estate, but would like to explore more diverse types of music. However, due to her current state of technological affairs, Kara is unable to download trance or trip-hop, she is unable to determine if the Real Slim Shady actually did stand up, she is unable to expand her mind and hear all that the music world has to offer. Her situation is unfair, plain and simple. Let's not kid ourselves. Legal or illegal, the technology will be around for years to come. File-swapping technology will eventually be accepted as a legitimate means of distributing music. In the meantime, we as a society must prepare for this music industry revolution, and determine the effects it will have on all of us — not just the privileged, not just the poor, but all of us. Lehrer: Governor Bush, you have one minute... Bush: I don't think this is a technological issue at all. Once again, my opponent has tried to pit classes against one another, trying to scare people into the polls. He's not talking about Napster, he's talking about Napscare. Why, I'm thinking that not only did he invent the Internet, he also invented the MP3 file format. What you have is free, explicit music corrupting the children of our society and at less than CD-quality sound. It's fuzzy music, that's what it is. We must put an end to this Napster business. As we speak, thousands of our nation's children are downloading songs with explicit lyrics and lewd content, music that corrupts the minds of our future and squelches the future of our society. We can't have our children download music by Marilyn Manson and then go out and shoot people. We can't have our children download music by Melissa Etheridge and then go out and become lesbians. We can't have our children download music by Madonna and turn into sex machines. It is the government's duty to take care of our nation's children. We should regulate the movies that our children see, the television shows that our children watch and the music that our children listen to. It's tough enough to simply make enough money to support a child in America. Now you're telling our nation's families that they actually have to take care of their kids and look after them too? Lehrer: Time, governor. Bush: Can I just say one more thing? Lehrer: No, shut up. Gore: Jim, if I could add-- Lehrer: You too, Mr. Vice President. Ralph Nader: (muffled yelling from outside) Hey! Let me in! I have tickets! Copyright 2000 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved. This article was published in Vol. 141, No. 28 (Friday, October 6, 2000), beginning on page 16 and ending on page 15.