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Napster Outline Introduction. 2 The nature of Napster a. Creation of the website. 2 b. Scope of activity... 3 Conclusion a. Napster's contribution to the music industry... 3 b. Historical arguments... 4 References... 5 Introduction The topic of the paper is Napster with all its pros and antis.
To consider the topic properly we " re trying first of all: to decide what kind of phenomenon Napster represents i. e. what its nature is; then to analyze if noncommercial and personal purposes can be considered a copyright infringement; after that to evaluate the situation itself, basing on some historical background and statistics; and at last to make our conclusions. The topic has really a high concern nowadays as, firstly, it represents an issue interesting for a very large quantity of people among which are representatives of music industry, music fans, recording companies, average Internet users and just everyone who is interested in modern technologies.
The second reason for the topic to consider is to evaluate it in a broader or even in a global meaning, just to realize the event as the next small step for the development of the world in the whole. Thus, lets try to comprehend the situation beginning from its root. The nature of Napster a. Creation of the website The Napster website idea is an easy one: originally, its creator wanted to design a file sharing service for swapping music files simply with one another, without any mediators.
It may seem a paradox but this simple idea has resulted in one of the greatest legends in history of entertainment and even computer realm. But the pitfall is that Napster technology gave the possibility for music fans to exchange MP 3 format song files with one another in such a way causing lawsuits against Napster for massive copyright infringement. Consequently, Napster has divided the Internet community as well as the music industry with anti-Napster and pro-Napster ideas. b. Scope of activity It's important that Napster made its main impact on people, especially students using the Internet, since its creation in June of 1999.
Jenny Eliscu in his Napster Fights Back mentioned that the survey performed in summer 2000 showed that " 70 % of college students use Napster at least once a month" (p. 29). That survey also discovered that users not always "store the files they download" (ibid. ). The idea is backed by Chuck D's mind that Napster is just like a "kind of radio" that is good for upholding music fans' enthusiasm rather than replacing their concern in buying CDs (ibid). The point of view that copping of songs with noncommercial and personal purposes can't be considered a copyright infringement represents a major argument for Napster's lawyers (ibid). Some months after its creation in June of 1999, Napster rapidly "became notorious in the (record) industry" (Sheffield, 2000, p. 42). And already in winter of 1999, RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) had instituted a suit vs.
Napster (43). The RIAA accused Napster of copyright infringement and demanded $ 100, 000 for each copyrighted work that is violated. In spring of 2000, it was Metallica who brought an action vs. Napster for copyright violation as well as Dr. Dre did (ibid. ). Conclusion a.
Napster's contribution to the music industry Personally, I support the idea that Napster makes an important contribution to the music business rather than hampers it. Just think, the major argument against Napster is that it deprived the record companies of CD sales. Despite the fact that Napster might seem to deprive the companies of sales, the level of CD sales have really intensified in the Napster ebay (for example, it was $ 500 million in 2000) (Gasaway, 2000, p. 44). Thus, the question is what contributed to such an increase in sales instead of a decrease? So I think that it is because Napster provides its users with new music that probably would not obtain so much attention in any other case, thus upholding their desire to buy more music.
b. Historical arguments I consider Napster does not violate copyright, as there are only its index and directory of users on its central server, but not any mp 3 files. Thus, may be the same was in the days of cassettes, simply the record companies' unreasonable fear of new technology represented in the music industry. When blank cassettes were invented, many record companies were afraid of complete ruining the industry. The idea appeared that there would not be any necessity for people to buy cassettes in the case they could simply make a tape of a friend's album. Of course, it was long but currently we see that the music industry is evidently far from any kind of ruining; vice versa, it's a successful industry that is worth today more than $ 40 billion.
There is no doubt that this industry will only be stronger in the near future. A businessman, Eileen Richardson, who made investments in Napster, mentioned: We truly believe it's (the music industry) going to turn into a $ 100 billion business. And the way that's going to happen is that people are going to get exposed to more artists. The RIAA needs to admit, 'Hey, we don't understand what's going on here on the Internet. Maybe we should try to work with the people who do' (Gasaway, 2000, p. 44).
What will be with Napster in future? Nobody knows. Only time will give an answer to the question though, regardless of any future events, it is Napster that absolutely changed the Internet in general and the music industry in particular, and doing in such a way, has guarantees itself an honorable place in history. References Eliscu, J. (2000, June 22). Napster Fights Back. Rolling Stone, 29.
Gasaway, L. (2000, August). MP 3 and Napster Controversies. Information Outlook, 44. Sheffield, R. (2000, 6 - 20 July). The Most Dangerous Man in the Music Biz. Rolling Stone, 42 - 45.
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