The Napster Controversy

Paper Summary:

This paper explains in detail the consumer benefits of trading music files over the Internet on the Napster web site. It provides a historical overview of the growth of the company and its enormous popularity. It touches upon the copywriting controversy being fought in court.

From the Paper:

"The Napster is one of the most controversial and popular systems produced by the Internet. Unlike the many dot.com companies that have fallen by the wayside in droves, the controversy surrounding the Napster rages on and its popularity continues to grow. Still, the question remains, is it a form of artistic piracy? Or is it the greatest way for consumers to explore the wide range of musical forms and musical talent in the world and on the web?
The history of the Napster began in January 1999, making it fairly old in terms of Internet chronology. Shawn Fanning created it while he was a nineteen-year- old student at Northeastern University. At present, Shawn Fanning lives in San Mateo, California, just a few minutes from the Napster offices. He rooms with Sean Parker, the twenty-year-old co-founder of Napster Inc. (Rollingstone.com) Their invention allows students to download songs for free from the Internet without buying the band's album, without paying any royalties to either the music company or the musicians who produced the music. At the end of 1999, 20 million Internet surfers had made use of the technology. By 2000, the number increased to nearly 70 million. (CNET News.com)"

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