Can The Music Industry Change Its Tune?
...the Web? This question has shaken the music industry to its foundations. A
tremendous number of Internet users have taken advantage of online file-sharing
services where they can download digitized music files from other users free of charge.
The first such service to be widely used was Napster. Its Web site provided
software and services that enabled users to locate any of the 1 billion digitized MP3
music files on the computers of other online Napster members and copy them onto their
own computers for free. Napster's own computers did not store any music files, but
instead acted as a matchmaker. To obtain a specific music file, you would sign on to the
Napster Web site and type in the name of the desired song. Napster's central title index
would display the connected computers with that specific song. Napster then established
a direct connection between the requesting computer and the one storing the desired
music file. Your Napster software then would download that file onto your computer.
You could play the song on your computer and copy it onto CDs. If you stored it on
your computer, others could copy it from you. Napster quickly became so popular that
when it was shut down in 2001, it had more than 80 million users worldwide.
Napster users could legally copy and trade uncopyrighted material, but
reproducing copyrighted files without permission is illegal because the recipient does
not compensate the owner for the use of the intellectual property. In December 1999,
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing the five major
music recording companies (Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, BMG, and
EMI), which together were responsible for 80 percent of recorded music, sued Napster
for...
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