Copyright Infringement And Napster Essay Research Paper

Copyright Infringement And Napster Essay, Research Paper

Is trading digital music using Napster Online legal or copyright infringement. First, we must find out what Napster is and who created it. Napster is a combination of .the features of existing programs: the instant-messaging system of Internet Relay Chat, the file-sharing functions of Microsoft Windows and the advanced searching and filtering capabilities of various search engines.(Greenfield). Basically all it is, is a really cool little program that a person can download off of the internet for free. Install it on the nearest computer, go through the setup, log on to the internet, and type in someone.s favorite artist. When the artist or song name is entered into the search engine part of Napster, it searches the Napster server and files of other users online at that time for your artist or song.

Point-click-download, it is easy as that to get what some people call illegal Mp3.s. Mp3 stands for mpeg layer 3, a small music file that downloads quickly from the Internet. Many people have found out these files can be hard to find, leading the explorer to dead ends if a searcher doesn.t know where to go or doesn.t want to pay for them. But in 1999, a person by the name of Shawn Fanning decided to do something about the availability of these files. .Fanning figured out that if he combined a music-search function with a file-sharing system and, to facilitate communication, instant messaging, he could bypass the rat.s nest of legal and technical problems that kept great music from breaking out all over the World Wide Web. (Greenfield). So, over a period of months in 1999, he created the famed Napster. At 18 years of age, Shawn would become a teenager.s hero and best friend from whom to get new free music. Then these few lines of code and combined programs got this 18 year-old in a lot of trouble.

If you look at the back of a CD or on the credits page of a magazine or book, you will find a copyright number and date. According to Webster.s New World Dictionary, copyright is defined as the exclusive right to the publication, production, or sale of the rights to a [ musical ] work. It also says that the period of copyright in the United States is twenty-eight years and a chance for one renewal for another twenty-eight years. Notice that it said the sale of the rights to a musical work, and Shawn Fanning certainly doesn.t have enough money to buy the rights to 90% of all copyrighted music out there. So sharing a multitude of Mp3.s on one program in many computers around the world would definitely constitute a copyright violation, or infringement. The ironic thing is, Napster itself does have a copyright policy and it specifically states:

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the text of which may be found on the U.S. Copyright Office web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright), Napster will respond expeditiously to claims of copyright infringement committed using the Napster server that are reported to Napster.s .Designated Copyright Agent. identified below. If you are a copyright owner, or authorized to act on behalf of an owner of the copyright or of any exclusive right under the copyright, please report your notice of infringement by completing the following notice from and delivering it to the Designated Copyright Agent. (Napster Copyright Policy)

Technically, because it is a national law, copyright laws pertain to every person living in the United States. Only the artists that make their own work, if they don.t sell the rights, can do whatever they want with the piece they create. But the real question is: Is Napster violating the law.

Many recording artists and record labels have been in an uproar about this simple program since its popularity in early 2000. One of the most popular artists to be involved with this catastrophe of freedom of speech and expression, has been a hard rock group known as Metallica. Metallica has been one of the largest pawns used against Napster because of their stature in the modern music business and .anti-Napster. speculation. Even though Metallica has been used to fight Napster, many more bands and artists support Metallica. On the flip side of that, there are also just as many artists that support Napster and what it is doing, such as the ultra-rap/metal band Limp Bizkit. For many fledgling bands and artists it is a good way, no, a great way, to get their music to the public and hopefully have a recording label find you and sign you. On that note, many record label presidents confess to having Napster installed on to their computers. It is a good chance that some new artists will be signed because of an .illegal. Mp3 sharing program.

The United States law says, according to the book The Constitution & Its Amendments, there is a limitation on copyright rights. It states:

In carrying out the constitutional goal of promoting knowledge, modern copyright and patent law limits the rights of authors and inventors in important ways. When their term of protection comes to an end, creative products enter the public domain. Moreover, under certain conditions, anyone may use protected products without permission from the copyright or patent holder, even during the term of protection.

So, if these .certain conditions. pertain to Napster, the program and its actions, are not illegal. To illustrate, if a per