| Close to four months ago, when I heard the
word ‘Napster’ I thought it was a new phrase for telling people they had nappy
hair. I had no idea what it was, but yet I heard everyone around me talking
about it, so I surfed on the internet and decided to check it out. I went ahead
and downloaded it the program, not knowing four months from now Napster would
have a tremendous influence and impact in the music industry, changing the way
we view music forever.
First of all, what is Napster? Napster is a program
created by Shawn Fanning, an 18 year old ‘inarticulate’ teenager, who was
frustrated trying to find good music on the internet ,and how so many of the
pointers on the websites offering current music seem to only led to dead ends.it
is a program enabling users to “transfer music files directly without going
through a centralized file server or middle man.” (Greenfield 1), Napster is
program that freed a vast library of copyrighted music, turning the music
industry on its head.
For obvious reasons, recording artists as well as
record companies are in opposition to napster, which are the loss in profit and
sales and piracy issues that deal with copyright regulation and code. As
Greenfield states, “ Napster has forced the record companies to rethink their
business models and record company lawers and recording artists to defend their
intellectual property.” Changing the way the record companies have been
operating their business for centuries by an 18 year old ‘inarticulate’ teenager
is not an easy pill to swallow the record companies take much offense to this
partially because Napster is the fastest growing site in history, passing the 25
million mark in less than a year of operation. ( Greenfield) and potentially
taking away 25 million consumers from their business. Napster sends a disruptive
message of change to the music industry, kicking out the old and bringing in the
new and because of this the profitable orderly business of recording, promoting
and selling music will never be the same again. Basically the music industry
will become obsolete, thus losing jobs in the music industry, but according to
TIME magazine, “ record sales have gone up and there is virtually no indication
that record sales are at a loss.”(pg.56) due to Napster, and free internet
trade. Free internet music trade actually promotes new artists and recording
artists by allowing the user to download music free of charge, and listen to
their music allowing the user to make the decision whether or not to purchase
the album. As quoted from Micheal Grenz, an 18 year old teenager at creek high
school, he states: It’s free and it’s their music and the kids are listening to
it. I heard this one song and I thought it was pretty tight, so I went and
bought the CD. That’s money for them. (recording industry) I don’t know why
they’re trippin’.” RIAA (The recording industry association of America) has sued
Napster, claiming the website and Fanning’s program are facilitating the theft
of intellectual property. (Greenfield 1) So does that mean the record companies
are going to file a suit against every American who lends a friend a CD or
cassette tape to copy? According to the copyright law, lending a friend
copyrighted music to make a copy of their own is not prohibited, as long as
there is no profitable cause involved, and that’s what Napster is. Napster is a
program where a millions of friends who have a common interest in music, come
together in the ‘Napster” community to lend music to each other. There is no
profit involved with the transfer of music files, nor profits are made once the
file has been downloaded by the user. As Fanning states: “It builds community,
it breaks barriers, it is viral, it is scaleable and it disintermediates…
exactly what a web application is supposed to do.”
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