Each way to download has its advantages and disadvantages. If people choose to download music legally, they do not have to worry about being charged high fines. People who download illegal music do not have to worry about paying per song and like getting music for free. When one decides which way to download, he/she looks at the good and bad things about each and makes his/ her own judgment about it.
Although this may be true, I believe that Napster is doing more good to our society than bad. It's use of file sharing technology and expression is allowing new standards to be set for the future. A great misconception is that Napster provides its clients with illegally pirated music software known as MP3's. These MP3's are compressed CD quality music files that can be stored on any computer for easy listening, or can be copied onto an actual CD for listening on the go. In actuality, Napster does not provide any pirated MP3's; rather they act as a catalog for users to find certain songs (Magid, 2001).
She also points out that young people in the millennium generation do not see downloading music for free as a huge problem. She concludes her article by stating that perhaps music piracy is not such a negative trend. Although it affects individua... ... middle of paper ... ... issue of file-sharing, and the decline in music sales due to people downloading free music. Besides using vague information and few statistics, she is also making many assumptions about the facts that she is stating in this article. When she is making too many assumptions, I am not entirely persuaded to steer clear from downloading music for free.
MPEG-1 has been around since 1992, but during the last few years (1998/99) it has started to get widespread attention from regular media and ordinary users. (What is MP3) In simple terms, this means that, using this kind of compression, digital music files can be shrunk so that they can be transferred faster over the Internet. "Without audio coding, downloading uncompressed high-quality audio files from a remote Internet server would result in unfavorably long transmission times" (FAQ). The MP3 standard impacted the music industry almost overnight. People began "ripping" their music (extracting songs from a CD) and converting them into MP3's, then sharing their collection with other users like themselves all over the world, using the internet.
In 1998, a program that played MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 files called Winamp was offered for download on the Internet as a free music player. Soon, people all over the world were copying music files off of CDs and converting them to MP3 files, then making them available to others over the Internet. In 1999, music piracy off... ... middle of paper ... ...stry Association of America and other sensible people continue to fight against it, piracy will always be contained at least to a diminutive degree. Works Cited “Fewer Than 1 in 10 Teenagers Believe that Music Piracy is Morally Wrong.” The Barna Group, LTD. n.p. 26 April 2004.
Online music purchasing shows no signs of dropping, and the consumers show no sign of listening to less music. The industry just has to take the initiative to make the music more accessible to music listeners at a fairer price.
Everyone who uses the Internet has heard of some way to swap MP3 files back and forth. A lot of people who don't even use the Internet have heard of Napster, Scour, Aimster, Gnutella, etc. Why is this? Napster has gained a lot of notoriety lately, but how could one computer program written by a teenager become so popular? This college dropout's program makes it very easy to listen to your favorite music for free, and this has the recording industry up in arms while many artists are pro-Napster.7 In the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, the U.S. Government declared it legal to share music, and make recordings of it, as long as it is not used commercially or to make a profit.
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, ther... ... middle of paper ... ... examine how many users would cease to use Napster with its proposed subscription charge.
There are two distinct sides to the mp3 issue. A cyberspace tug-of-war is taking place between the rights of MP3 consumers and those of musicians and record companies that desire to control any and all consumption of their product, the music. Internet piracy is being combated by groups such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The rights of music consumers are being championed by many groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and supporters of such web sites as mp3.com. While there are a number of legal and authorized pieces of music that may be downloaded by Internet consumers, there are just as many offerings that can be considered to be "bootleg" or illegal, and are placed on the Internet by "pirates."
Companies like Napster, a music file sharing program, is creating havoc among performing artists and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) due to possible copyright and piracy violations. Though Napster is a brilliant invention, allowing millions to share information, it should be shut down because it infringes on the constitution, which serves only to protect everyone's rights. Napster is a program that allows members to download mp3 music files from another member's computer for no cost. Estimated 2 million Napster users are getting their music for free. After downloading music, users can burn with a CD-Rewriter, which supposedly eliminates the need for people to buy CDs.