Illegally copying and distributing copyrighted material is against the law. This law is widely known, but rarely enforced. However, in recent months an Internet program called Napster has come under fire for aiding in the illegal distribution of music. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing 18 record labels, has sued this California-based company for copyright violations. The controversy surrounding Napster is that the program itself does not illegally distribute copyrighted music. The people who use the program are the ones responsible for this illegal distribution. Another problem facing Napster is that universities around the country are beginning to block the program because it takes up too much bandwidth. Despite these problems Napster continues to go strong, adding new users every day. What will be the future of this hot new company?

Napster is the nickname of its creator, 19-year-old Shawn Fanning. Fanning wrote the program and obtained a large cash donation from a family friend. This donation allowed him to quit college and move from Harwich, Massachusetts, to San Mateo, California, to start a company with two of his friends. That w

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over the Internet by copyright owners; however, Napster users

Hillary Rosen, president of the RIAA, says, "This is not a passive role" (Holland 9).

RIAA executives are mainly afraid that Napster will cut into CD sales. Many students claim that they will never buy another CD again. This threat seems very real due to the increasing popularity of CD rewriters in personal computers. Many new computers come with this CD rewriter, also know as a "CD burner." CD burners enable people to "burn" their MP3's onto a CD, which they can then listen to in their stereos. Also, one can usually find the songs from an entire CD on Napster instead of just one hit song. That means that people who want to listen to entire CD can illegally download that CD online.

Clearly, Napster is trying to clear itself of being held liable for what its users do. Secondly, Napster does not actually control any of the music its users share. In fact, the music never even passes through its website. Napster's strongest defense is that it just puts out software that caters to a certain file type. Richardson says, "We can't be responsible for our users. All we're doing is being an index for a certain kind of file format" (Cohen 41). Because of Napster, many artists who do not have a record contract, but are trying to build a fan base are able to get their music to thousands of people worldwide. According to Napster, their software is no more illegal than a VCR is. VCR's are sometimes used to copy rented movies. Technically, this aides in the illegal copying of movies, but you do not hear about anyone trying to ban VCR's. The lawsuit comes down to whether or not Napster is held liable for aiding in the illegal distribution of copyrighted music.

States and/or foreign copyright laws. Compliance with

distributed without copyright owner authorization. Neither

Kover, Amy. "Who's afraid of this kid?." Fortune. 20 March 2000. 129-130. Electronic. Proquest.

the MP3 file format nor the Napster software indicates whether

as a little over seven months ago. Today, Fanning and his company have become the talk of the Internet. The program runs on personal computers and allows a user to share his or her collection of MP3 files. MP3's are the Internet's

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)