Napster

Napster

If you haven't heard of Napster before you should be asking yourself what planet you're from? From when it first was programmed by 19 year old Shawn Fanning, people could tell it was going to be a big success. And it was, spreading like a fire and causing all kinds of media hype as well as causing its share of various legal problems. So if you have been living in a cave or another planet I'll try to explain Napster to you as best as I can. Napster allows you to log onto the Internet and search (like a search engine only more refined) for songs in mp3 format (the digital form of music). You can type in the name of the song and the artist and it will come up with the closet match as well as a listing the song's name, the speed of the user you are about to download it off of (or the ping) and the user's name. When you download this song in mp3 format, it is stored in a personal file on your hard drive and you can listen to them via Napster's own playing device or you can burn the mp3's onto Cd's if you have a cd burner. Mp3's have been around long before Napster but Napster has employed a revolutionary system for the transferring of information between users. It basically works like this; 1) Napster user logs on, 2) Once user is logged onto server this allows other users to access any mp3's you've already downloaded yourself, 3) Napster user downloads more mp3's they are looking for, 4) song is downloaded and stored on your hard drive but is accessible to other Napster users who want the same song. What you are doing in essence is "sharing" files, one user searches for the song he wants finds it and downloads it off another, in turn that user himself is looking for another file to download off someone else. The files when downloaded are copied to your hard drive from the other users. This said its not surprising to see all the legal action taken against Napster, most see it is plain and simple piracy and it posses a great threat to the Recording Industry. But was taking legal action nesecary seeing as the technology would spread and eventually be used for other media? Wouldn't it have been better to work out some agreement between the two businesses instead of merely trying to hold back this technology?