Napster Problem Or Solution Essay Research Paper

Napster: Problem Or Solution. Essay, Research Paper

In mid-1999, 19 year old Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning designed a computer

program that allowed one to log on to a central server, and be able to download mp3 music files

from another computer at lightning speed, with great ease. He called this program Napster, after

his old high school nickname. Since it’s inception, Napster has sparked court cases involving

every major record company in North America, and created a worldwide debate about copyright

infringement and it’s effects on the music industry.

Napster is a peer to peer file-sharing program designed specifically for the exchange of MPEG 1

Layer 3,also known as MP3, digital audio files. These files are super-compressed audio that

would normally be more than ten times larger than they are as MP3s. This is because MP3s

special coding cuts down on file size while maintaining nearly all noticeable sound quality.

Because of this people use MP3s to record songs and store them on their computers. They can be

played using many different pieces of audio software available such as Nullsoft’s Winamp and

Microsoft Windows Media Player. Napster is designed to facilitate the easy searching and

exchanging of MP3 files by allowing users to search for specific songs or artists and displaying a

list of those songs available through other Napster users. This is great for users who want to

enjoy free music but the record companies aren’t quite as happy about this. They are concerned

that Napster steals money from them and the artists that they represent. This is because if

Napster users get songs for free from other users, they won’t be paying the record companies for

CDs. Luckily for the record companies, there are laws in place to protect interests such as theirs.

These laws are called copyright laws. They prevent people from using, distributing, or selling

things that are not theirs. By having music that one did not buy on a CD, or distributing music

through programs such as Napster, one is committing copyright infringement. The record

companies are so angry about all of this that they have decided to take it to court. Since they can

not sue all of the thousands and thousands of Napster users who are committing copyright

infringement, they have decided to sue Napster itself instead. This would effectively eliminate

the source of the problem as most MP3 exchange today is done through Napster. The problem is

that Napster is never actually committing copyright infringement, as Napster is never actually in

possession of illegal MP3 files. They are never stored in, nor do they travel through Napster’s

server. The server merely record the name and location of the files and routes users together in

order to exchange files. Once the users have been connected the file is transferred directly from

one user to another and the Napster server is no longer involved. Because of this design, the

record companies have decided to accuse Napster of facilitating copyright infringement. This

means that they did not actually steal any music but they help user do so. Right now the case is

still going on. In early August, the courts decided that Napster must shut down its server,

effectively cutting off all of its users. This was handed down in the form of an injunction.

Shortly after, the decision was appealed and the case continued. Napster went back online, and

the court case is continued. Recently Bertelsmann, owner of BMG Records, dropped its part of

the suit and settled out of court with Napster. Some individual bands have also decided to act

against Napster, but in a different way. Metallica, a band widely known as the most popular

heavy metal band today, hired a consulting firm to record the username and IP addresses of users

who had illegally shared or downloaded their songs over a period of days. They delivered the list

of hundreds of thousands of users to Napster headquarters and demanded that these users be

kicked off of the service. They were. Other musicians such as rap superstar and forefather Dr.

Dre have followed suit. Many users who were kicked off have become very angry and Metallica

has received a lot of negative media attention as a result of their actions. Other bands, on the

other hand, see Napster as an easier way to new bands to get heard, a way to take away some of

the power from the strangle holds of a few giant media conglomerates that control the music

industry, and as the new wave in music distribution. Either way, one thing is for sure: MP3s, the

Internet, and Napster has and will continue to seriously change the way that recorded music is

exchanged.

How Napster Works:

1. Napster is downloaded and installed on a personal computer. It is available as a completely

free download from http://www.napster.com. It is now available to users of all recent versions of

either Microsoft Windows or Apple’s Mac OS. The only other requirement is a connection to the

Internet. A faster Internet connection

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