Technology is changing the world. Some of the more significant technological advances have been made in the field of communications. Every few months a new way of sharing information is developed and disseminated. The newest information being shared is music and the technologies being utilized are MP3 files. The most recent issue that has become known is the legality of MP3 files that are copied from music albums without paying royalties to the artists. The truth is MP3 file trading break copyright laws, and because of this fact, major recording companies as well as individual artists are suing the two largest distributors of MP3 files, Napster and MP3.com.
Before the advent MP3 files it would require 1.400 [megabytes] to represent just one second of stereo music in CD quality. According to Christopher Jones, editor of Webmonkey, MP3 is short for Moving Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer III. He also states that, a standard MP3 compression is at a 10:1 ratio, and yields a file that is about 4 MB for a three-minute track. In 1987, Prof. Dieter Seitzer of the University of Erlangen created the MP3 format to replace pre-existing MPEG audio coding. The reason MP3 files became so popular so fast is that when one creates an MP3 file, or ripped, from a compact disc, there is no loss in quality. Every copy made thereafter is identical to the last, so unlike old tapes the quality is the same from the first copy to the hundredth copy.
The MP3 file format is legal, in every sense of the word. Copyright laws apply to MP3 files the same way they apply to compact discs, tapes, and other music mediums. The founders of the United States, in fact, recognized the value of creative discovery and saw fit to offer protection for such works to promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. According to United St...