The Napster Debate Essay, Research Paper
The Napster Debate
The Napster package ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.napster.com ) , established in May of 1999, allows Internet users to portion and download MP3 files straight from any computing machine connected to the Napster web. The package downloads a client plan from the Napster site and so connects to the web through the package. This allows sharing ( uploading and downloading ) of MP3 files between all users connected to the web. Napster besides allows users to talk to one another by ways of instant messages, confab suites, and Hot List user bookmarks. Napster does non excuse right of first publication violation, but leaves no chance in the package to halt this from go oning. Napster besides does non supply creative persons with royalties for their music. Peoples can now download music for free in their ain places and creative persons can let go of their music themselves. This could intend the terminal of record labels and other associated companies, doing creative persons and record companies to worry. Napster challenges the music industry & # 8217 ; s monopoly on distribution
Unlike similar file-sharing package such as Gnutella and Freenet, Napster limits users to uploading/downloading of MP3 files merely. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //gnutella.wego.com/ ) and ( hypertext transfer protocol: //freenet.sourceforge.net/ ) MP3 files approximate one-tenth the size of the corresponding moving ridge files and can be close to CD-quality. This ground causes many creative persons, record labels, and other music industry stakeholders to be concerned by MP3 file formats like Napster that simplify the sharing of copyrighted stuff.
Other file formats normally used on the Internet do non look to be a menace to the recording industry chiefly due to the reduced quality of the recording. Real audio files have reduced sound quality, as compared to a wireless, and normally stream over different protocols. This allows people to listen to vocals without holding to download the beginning files. Midi, another music file format, can be normally found on the Internet. These files pose no menace to the music industry. The files send a set of instructions to the computing machine pass oning which sounds to play, non recorded music since there is no manner to double vocal paths. Use of the Midi format has decreased doing the package to go out-of-date.
The reaction from creative persons, record labels, and other music industries varies, although reactions have been chiefly anti-Napster. The first action to be taken against Napster was by the set Metallica. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/05/10/napster_metallica/index.html ) In April of 2000, Metallica sued Napster Inc. for copyright violation. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh499.htm ) Napster banned some 300,000 users who allegedly downloaded Metallica vocals to settle the instance out of tribunal. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/11131.html ) Napster Inc. was sued once more in June 2000, for copyright violation by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA ) , a trade group stand foring the US recording industry. The RIAA alleged, & # 8220 ; Napster is & # 8230 ; enabling and promoting the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted music & # 8221 ; . ( http: //www.riaa.com/About- Who.cfm ) Napster claims the Audio Home Recording Act permits copying of stuff for personal usage, leting users to interchange MP3 & # 8217 ; s. Napster farther claims unsusceptibility by specifying the company as an ISP under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/11750.html ) The RIAA unsuccessfully applied for an injunction to halt Napster & # 8217 ; s operations until after the tribunal instance in September. ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh428.htm )
Other creative persons and record labels ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.napster.com/speakout/artists.html ) and ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.napster.com/speakout/labels.html ) have reacted to the coming of Napster and similar package in a positive manner, encompassing the new engineering instead than rejecting it. On the Offspring & # 8217 ; s website, the set said, & # 8220 ; MP3 engineering and plans such as Napster [ are ] a critical and necessary agencies to advance music and Foster better relationships with our fans. & # 8221 ; ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.offspring.com/napster.html ) The Offspring & # 8217 ; s last album, Americana, before commercial release became available illicitly online, yet it is the set & # 8217 ; s best-selling album to day of the month. A figure of studies have proven that Napster users buy more Cadmiums after trying vocals online ( ht
tp: //www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/12093.html ) . This issue builds the nucleus of the RIAA case, whether or non Napster and similar applications will intend decreased Cadmium gross revenues. Napster does dispute the traditional distribution of music, but whether this should be viewed as a menace or a new medium the music industry can work creates another issue. Some record labels, notably Epitaph ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.epitaph.com ) , partnered with sites like e-music.com to sell full albums and individual vocals in MP3 format over the web. In this instance, the record company gained a new distribution method instead than seeing it as the “enemy” . The record company still gets a cut of the net incomes, while the artists’ whose vocals are downloaded through Napster don’t.
Napster creates a free and convenient manner to acquire music compared to sing record shops, doing it appealing. Napster besides facilitates international distribution for unsigned creative persons, endangering record labels. Previously, without being signed to a record label an creative person could non acquire the exposure to do a life as a instrumentalist. The Internet allows sites like mp3.com and Napster to help fighting creative persons.
The music industry & # 8217 ; s response to Napster compares to the response to the debut of cassette and VHS tapes. The engineerings allowed people to enter and double copyrighted information, and at the clip these were seen as menaces to the several industries. Time has proven that tape recordings are no replacement for professional, commercial recordings. The same can be said for Napster. Songs can be downloaded but do non bring forth CD quality and complete albums can seldom be found on Napster. After downloading an MP3 it can merely be listened to on a computing machine or a walkman-style device, such as RIO. Compact phonograph record can be listened to about anyplace ; on a computing machine, stereo, Walkman, auto, and etc. MP3 & # 8217 ; s can be written to pack phonograph record but the degree of expertness required to make a CD & # 8217 ; s consequences in it being easier to purchase a commercial Cadmium.
When a consumer purchases a Cadmium, they receive supernumeraries such as graphics, wordss, images and other line drive information, doing the Cadmium more valuable. New promotions in multimedia constituents for computing machines allow video footage, exposures, games, and and so forth, to be included on the Cadmium. Merely as people still buy and lease pictures even though they can enter films from Television, people will go on to purchase CDs, encouraged more if monetary values are reduced and extras given away with the music. Then Napster could be seen as a & # 8220 ; seek before you buy & # 8221 ; application for the music industry non an enemy.
Bibliography
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( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/05/10/napster_metallica/index.html )
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Rosen, Hilary B. RIAA / Who We Are Page 17 Feb. 2001
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( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/11131.html )
Smith, Tony. & # 8220 ; MP3 Fans purchase more Cadmiums than non-fans & # 8211 ; survey. & # 8220 ; ( 2001 ) . 18 Feb. 2001
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( hypertext transfer protocol: //www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh428.htm )
