For century’s people had dreamed of capturing the sounds and music from the environment. Many had attempted it but no one had succeeded until Thomas Alva Edison discovered a method of recording and playing back sound. What had started out as an apparatus intended as part of an improved telephone led to the development of an instrument which would change the world, making it a happier, even a better, place to live. As time went by, more technological advancements came in to play. Throughout the 1900’s technology advanced and people came in touch with new devices.
After the computer was invented, the world changed again. No one could ever foresee how this great pieces of machinery would ever change the world. The Internet was later created and set loose to the people. With modern revelations and technology booming, a file sharing program was invented. It is known as Napster and has changed the way we look at file sharing today. Justification A revolution in the music industry surfaced in 1999, when Shawn Fanning, a Northeastern University undergraduate, and a few of his friends came up with an ingenious idea.
They would create a program that would allow them to transfer songs and other data from each others computers via the internet. It seemed like a crazy idea but he thought to himself that it could work. It took Shawn a little over 60 hours to write a small MP3-sharing software application known as Napster. It was originally designed for the exchange of Fanning and friends’ own recordings, but soon spread thought the campus and town. Napster quickly became a conduit for mainstream MP3s, and an MP3-sharing community was built overnight as the beta version of the shareware program quickly caught on.
New songs could be found and downloaded at the touch of a button. Entire albums could be exchanged in minutes for free. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) contends that the service Napster provides is just a high-tech shortcut to music piracy. But in recent “friends of the court” briefs, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents tech giants like AT&T, Yahoo and Oracle, said the courts need to reinterpret and revise some of the “overprotective” models for guarding intellectual property.
However, Napster still had to go to court and Shawn Fanning had to prove his point that he was just trying to spread the wealth of music to everyone. Narrative Online piracy, through sites such as Australian-owned KaZaA, Audio Galaxy, Lime wire and Napster, are blamed for chopping more than 10 percent off record company annual revenues, which are about $600 million in Australia. This was proven wrong against the facts that video games and Dvd sales have gone through the roof in the last few years.
With the introduction of new game consoles like XBOX and PlayStation 2, a lot of the revenue that was going to cd’s, is now moving over into new video games. With the increase in demand of DVD’s and not VHS, revenue has also moved over. Advancements of DVD players in cars and portable DVD players, cd’s have taken another step back in the major picture. People only have so much expendable income and with new things to spend them on and the prices of these objects being so high, cd’s have to move back some.
However, it is predicted that by the year 2007, the digital music revues would be worth $2 billion if there was no flat subscription fee. “They needed some volts up their backsides and the internet gave it to them,” one veteran music pirate says. “Most pirates are not teenagers, but a normal person in the mid 30’s who wants to find rare and exotic files that major companies over look and neglect. The major problem is when people copy brand new Cd’s and make copy’s of them for their friends. That is the real piracy. When Lars Ulrich (drummer for Metallica) lead the suit after Napster, he turned against what he had done years earlier.
Before Metallica was a huge success, they were handing out bootleg tapes that they had made at other bands shows. This was the only way that they could get the exposure that they needed in order to get fans to come to their shows. What that is can be included as piracy. They were taking attention away from another group in order to help themselves. Nevertheless, Napster lost the suit against RIAA, and was shut down in 2002 for two year before it came back out in 2004 with its new look and style. A lot of changes had to take place in order for Napster to come back on the scene.
It charged 99 cents for every song you download. This was a huge change. Other peer to peer programs had not changed over and Napster lost a lot of its business. Programs like Kazaa and Imesh did not charge for songs and blew Napster out of the water. It fell into a recession because it simply could not compete. Why pay for a song if you can go somewhere else and get it for free. Then a huge change came when Apple Computers unveiled their new product. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, released the IPod and ITunes and it was very catchy.
It built of the fundamentals of the peer to peer sharing network and made it seem to be a more legitimate program, It also charged 99 cents per song but it seemed to be a better deal that you could easily put you songs into a portable MP3 device and listen to your songs anywhere you went. This was the main reason that ITunes were so great. You could put your songs that you just download on to your IPod and have them whenever you need them. They raised the respect from many artists to promote the new IPod and sales were booming.
For a period of time it seemed that Apple had done the impossible and was going to eliminate free peer to peer sharing. They buzz of the IPod was moving so fast that no one could keep up. Napster had to change, and it had to change fast. It changed form 99 cents a song to a new campaign. With its new campaign, $15 a month for unlimited downloads, you could fill the IPod for a very small fraction of the price. $15 instead of $10,000 dollars was a change that everyone was up for. This was the move that brought Napster back to life. As soon as the new project went in to move, Napster quickly started to rise again.
They were regaining respect again and they were doing it in a legitimate way. ITunes sales have declined and Napster has started to get the respect and business that it was used too. Napster will never be back at the top of file sharing where it once stood in early 2000, but it will eventually make its way back to the top. As the times change and music expands more and more, people will want free and cheep music to prevail. There is nothing wrong with previewing a band or some of their songs. Most people like to listen to a new bands songs before they go out and buy the cd.
It gives you the feeling that your not just taking a shot in the dark and throwing away $15 every time you want to try out a new band. Conclusion After all that has been said and done, there is no possible way that the government or police will ever really shut down file sharing. It is to open and widespread for any one person or group to shut it down. Shawn Fanning really did create a monster when he introduced Napster. It changed the way people interact with one another over the internet. From that day forward people realized that they could easily share and communicate with one another over the medium known as the internet.
After all the struggles that have happened over the years, Napster will always be around and so will its counterparts and imitations. Napster may never get back to the status that it was once at but it will move and adapt over the years in order to preserver. We are living through a great part in history as we sit here today. Technology is moving so fast and the laws are getting too thin to be able to tell what is really illegal and what is just pushing the boundaries. New laws will eventually have to be written and eventually everything will be worked out and a natural medium will be established.
