Napster Research Paper
Napster: Revolutionary Program or One-Hit Wonder? Illegally copying and distributing copyrighted material is against the law. This law is widely known, but rarely enforced. However, in recent months an Internet program called Napster has come under fire for aiding in the illegal distribution of music. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing 18 record labels, has sued this California-based company for copyright violations. The controversy surrounding Napster is that the program itself does not illegally distribute copyrighted music. The people who use the program are the ones responsible for this illegal distribution. Another problem facing Napster is that universities around the country are beginning to block the program because it takes up too much bandwidth. Despite these problems Napster continues to go strong, adding new users every day. What will be the future of this hot new company?Napster is the nickname of its creator, 19-year-old Shawn Fanning. Fanning wrote the program and obtained a large cash donation from a family friend. This donation allowed him to quit college and move from Harwich, Massachusetts, to San Mateo, California, to start a company with two of his friends. That w
Thousands of MP3 files have been authorized for distributionover the Internet by copyright owners; however, Napster users should understand that MP3 files may have been created or distributed without copyright owner authorization. Despite the controversy surrounding the program, its user base continues to grow by as much as 25 percent everyday (Cohen 41). Another obstacle they must face is that there are an abundance of knockoffs popping up on the Internet. "Students jam college networks with use of Napster to find audio files. It was reducing the speed and reliability of our Internet services, which is something that's felt by everyone on campus - students, staff, and faculty" (McCollum A50). Administrators claim that bandwidth is their main concern, not the controversy surrounding illegal MP3 files. Clearly, Napster is trying to clear itself of being held liable for what its users do. They have begun to toy with the idea of advertising or e-commerce, but nothing has been decided yet. But the same recordings we advised Napster were infringing then are still available" (Holland 9). All we're doing is being an index for a certain kind of file format" (Cohen 41).
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