Essay, Research Paper: Napster

Napster
By: Alexis
Alexis Frank IST 333 August 9,2000 Napster In less than one year Napster has become the hot application that has some 20 million users running to their computer. Napster is currently fighting for its life against a court ordered shutdown, but it seems that people will find a way to share and downloud on line music no matter what. Napster is a music file sharing program that allows you to convert your desktop into a web based trading room. You have a personal MP3 files in a certain directory, Napter's server adds your shared files to its catalog and allos the whole world to download them. This allows you to comfortably search the web and downlaod songs that you desire. Millions of music fans swap MP3 digital music files, for free. It's like being in a giant record store and listening to anything you want. The battle over the music you listen to is between the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Napster. The RIAA is a trade group that represents the music industry and recording artist. Since October of '99 the RIAA has sent letters to the MP3Board to stop Napter, they also stated that Napster constitutes copyright infringement. They are seeking damages of up to $100,00 per pirated song. It has been suggested that the MP3Board should monitor its site for illegal content, which means every site would have to go through the RIAA's database before they could do a search. In 1998 the RIAA tried to sue Diamond Multimedia for distributing their famous "Rio" portable MP3 player. The RIAA claimed the Rio was exclusively used to listen to illegally copied MP3 files, but they lost that case. The lasted legal action against Napster has been a injunction that is being seeked by the RIAA.