RIAA vs. Napster

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the famous case of Napster being sued by the RIAA over copyright infringement by their technology that allowed individual users to share personal recordings across the Internet. It looks at the arguments from both sides against restraint, the legal position of both sides and the ethics of the whole episode. It evaluates how Napster's enterprise deprived artists of their rightful profit from their work even though it probably was not the intent upon Napster's entry into the marketplace and whether Napster were really at fault since they posted the copyright rules on their web site.

From the Paper:

"The RIAA claimed that Napster did not have any non-infringing uses that were commercially significant. The RIAA also claimed that copying off a television program is different than copying and distributing off a cd. Napster's position was that they were comparable to Sony because they are providing the directory that enables users to use it for non-infringing purposes. In this phase of the argument, both parties made reference to the Universal City Studios v. Sony case. Which determined that it was OK to videotape television shows for personal use. In Sony, why isn't it acceptable to copy music from the Internet for personal use?"

More papers on RIAA vs. Napster:

• Case Study # 56775 : "The Case of Napster"
• Analytical Essay # 23972 : "Copyright Laws and Napster"
• Essay # 71789 : "Napster"

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