Music Copyright Infringement Essay -- Napster Laws Essays

Music Copyright Infringement MP3 is an audio format that allows users to compress and send music files easily over the Internet. The major problem with this music sharing is that most of the files are pirated, which has caused a stir in the music industry. Music companies and music artists have been complaining about how their music is being stolen and therefore lowering their album sales. The major blame has been put on Napster and other file sharing software available on the Internet. Napster was a music sharing software that was shut down because of copying and distributing unauthorized MP3 files that violated the United States and foreign copyright laws. One of the major reasons why Napster was shutdown is because of Lars Ulrich, the drummer for the band Metallica. Lars Ulrich complained about Napster and how his music was being shared illegally on the Internet. To stop this Lars filed a complaint against Napster and then personally presented Napster with the names of thousands of Napster users who have allegedly been trading the band’s songs online without permission. This created a major problem for Napster as this was brought up to the United States Supreme Court. Napster argued in court that music is for sharing and all that Napster does is give people the opportunity to talk about what music they like what music they want to trade. The RIAA argued that sharing files over the Internet is illegal because the files are stolen and not copyrigh ted. Evidently Napster lost the court battle and therefore was forced to shutdown causing millions of users to find another way to share music files over the Internet. Shutting down of Napster caused a major race for who would be the next major softwa... ...iles. In the end music industries fear that people will inevitably stop buying CD’s causing the industry to be out of business. It is trying to do all that it can to keep the music industry going strong by going to courts and filing lawsuits against piracy. But as technology improves and more and more people are learning how to download and burn their own CD’s, this fight against piracy will almost be impossible. The decrease in sale has been very noticeable and it will only continue to fall. It seems like the only way to stop illegal file sharing is to shut down the internet. But the chances of that happening are not good therefore the music industry has their work cut out for them. Click Here For Some Links: http://newsfactor.com/perl/story/4704.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-252862.html?legacy=cnet http://www.napstermp3.com/news.htm