Music Downloading
... people at no cost. Napster focused mainly on music, someone could go out and buy a CD, then load it to the computer and share it worldwide through the program. In December of 1999, the RIAA sued Napster’s creator Shawn Fanning for copyright infringement. In 2001, a judge ruled that Napster was to cancel its distribution of copyrighted material for free; and in 2002, it did. After the release of Napster in 1999, it didn’t take computer wizards long to break the code of Napster. In 2003, there were at least 14 copycat programs that used the same illegal software originally used by Napster. These programs included “Kazaa”, “Bear Share”, and “Morephous”. The RIAA has made attempts get people to pay monthly wages to download music, but they have yet to catch on being that people can still download for free. You may also notice that Burger King and Pepsi are offering free music downloads when purchasing their products. An article on www.wired.com reports that since September, there have been 1,445 individual lawsuits and 381 settlements over this controversy. Do you have any idea how much money that would cost the government to take all these people to court? The fight the RIAA is trying to pursue is that against technology. They can do nothing to stop it, as long as someone has a computer and a program they have the power to download music; plain and simple. Recording artists from Metalica to Eminem have spoken out against the free downloading of music. Lars Ulrich, a member of Metalica was one of the first to start the fight against Napster. They complain about the decline of albums selling, as well as downloading their music for free breaks the rules of copyrighting. I understand how the fact that downloading artists’ music for free could upset an artist, but its not like they don’t still get money from touring and endorsements. When I pers...