The Napster Lawsuit in the U.S.

1061 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ethical issues faced by napster

The Napster Lawsuit in the U.S. In America, there is currently a lawsuit pending that threatens to change the face of the music industry. The lawsuit is against Napster it has been brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as well as other major music labels. Napster is a virtual community, which consists of music news and chat-rooms, the main feature it offers is an easy way to download MP3's (music files). This controversial service has brought the lawsuit to Napster. Napster allows its subscribers to download the music files without charge. It is not however, from Napster that the subscribers get these files. It is from each other. The users share their hard drives so that other users can download any of their music files that they want. The RIAA believe that Napster has helped users infringe copyright. The threat of the lawsuit has been around since the conception of Napster and was actually filed four months after Napster went on line. The case is not as clear-cut as it first appears. RIAA argues that most of the MP3's on Napster's site are mainly pirated. Therefore, by Napster allowing and actually making it easier for users to download MP3's this means that they are assisting Copyright infringement. Napsters defence is according to some legal experts, quite strong, especially as there are two cases that can be seen as setting precedents. The most recent being the RIAA suit against Diamond Multimedia. This company produces the 'Rio' a portable MP3 player. The RIAA felt the Rio ruined digital distribution as it played both legal and illegal MP3's. The judges ruling was in favour of Diamond Multimedia saying 'Rio is a playback only device, and therefore not subject to regulation.' RIAA Su... ... middle of paper ... ... (published 12/9/99 download 20/10/00) http://www.cnn.com/199/TECH/coputing/12/09/napster.suit.idg/index.html 7. Court Debates shutting down Napster Sharon Epperson (published 26/10/00 downloaded 30/10/00) http://www.msnbc.com/news/471169.asp?cp1=1 8. Testimony of Shawn Fanning (Published 26/10/00 Downloaded 30/10/00) http://www.napster.com/pressroom001031.html 9. Napster/Bertelsmann Q&A (Published 11/11/00 Downloaded 15/11/00) http://www.napster.com/pressroom/qanda.html 10. News Flash (Published 11/11/00 Downloaded 15/11/00) http://www.napster.com/pressroom001031b.html 11. Napster Has Clay Shirky (Published 1/11/00 Downloaded 15/11/00) http://www.feedmag.com/templates/daily.php3?a_id=1381 12. Napster has history on its side-kind of JL (Published 22/11/00 Downloaded 22/11/00) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000918/digital.b.htm

Show More
Related

  • Should People Be Prosecuted

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Big time record companies and artist are losing billions of dollars due to people illegally downloading music files. The

    Read More

  • The Napster and Grokster Cases: Differences and Similarities

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2001, the case of A &M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. was first heard in the United States District Court of Northern California where Napster claimed that the record companies were, in fact, violating their First Amendment rights. The court disagreed with this argument, held, and ruled in favor of the record companies saying that they indeed had a valid argument.

    Read More

  • Online Music Distribution In A Post-Napster World

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this case, there are three main effects of Napster on the recording industry. The first one is that it caused a large decline in record sales in a short time. According to this case, the spending on recorded music in U.S dropped 4.1% in 2001 and the industry’s top 10 albums also sold much less compared to the year before. The second effect is that it cased the sales of CD burners, blank CDs and digital audio players increase and nowadays, most new computers come with CD-RW drives installed, which means people can easily store downloaded music, share music with friends and take it with them anytime as well. The third effect is that it increased the cost of recorded music. Once people can download free music through peer-to-peer software services, they have less incentive to buy original editions, which will make recording industry spend more to fight against copyrights and invest more in new artists and new music. Overall, these three effects make the recording industry go through a hard time.

    Read More

  • Napster Vs Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    A popular program easily accessible on the Internet is called Napster. After you download it from Napster’s site, you basically tell it where you keep your Mp3 files and when it connects it cross-references everyone’s files and lets you search through them all and download as you please. 90% of the files that are traded daily are illegally “ripped” from CDs. Napster has a blurb at startup that states “Copying or distributing unauthorized Mp3 files may violate United States and/or foreign copyright laws. Compliance with copyright law remains your responsibility.” The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is charging the site with copyright infringement and alleges that Napster has created a base for music piracy on an unprecedented scale. Napster contends that they provide the platform, not the actions, and that as the blurb states it’s up to the people. Napster is not at fault because the RIAA has overstepped their boundaries and infringed on first amendment rights online.

    Read More

  • Ethical Dilemma Of Napster

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    Napster was created in 1999 by a college dropout named Sean Fanning. Napster allows users to swap digital song files over the internet easily and most of all free. Millions of people used Napster to retrieve almost any song a person could think of, for example, songs that are current number one hits to the other songs from the "one-hit-wonders." Napster created a way for people world wide to exchange or share music files quickly and easily. This causes the ethical dilemma on whether trademark rights are being infringed or is "sharing" the music files legal and ethical.

    Read More

  • Napster Case Study

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, it is important to discuss the direct, contributory and vicarious infringement claims against Napster. Direct copyright infringement claims are based on a breach of a copyright owners’ exclusive rights to the copyrighted work(s). A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004, 1013 (9th Cir. 2001). Napster was found liable for this because the users used its platform to upload and download copyrighted music, thus infringing on

    Read More

  • Napster: From Illegal Weapon to Killer Application

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning Napster was not concerned with protecting the intellectual property rights of the artists and songwriters (Weiss, 2006). ...

    Read More

  • Copyright Infringement via Internet-based File-sharing Technology

    1397 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, has made efforts to shut down Napster, and in rebuttal, Napster has focused on six core arguments that they felt lent "great legal weight to their position that neither the company, nor its users were violating the law"i.

    Read More

  • How to burn a cd

    1703 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 2000, one of the biggest news stories was the rise of Napster and similar file-sharing programs. With these programs, you could get an MP3 version of just about any song you want without shelling out a dime. The record companies were fairly upset over this turn of events, and understandably so: They weren't making any money off the distribution of their product to millions of people.

    Read More

  • Napster Case Study

    2029 Words  | 5 Pages

    v Napster Inc. was a significant and defining internet intellectual property case that addressed copyright laws and P2P music file sharing. After rejecting Napster’s fair use claim, the court determined that Napster was liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and ordered the creation of an injunction against Napster’s future copyright infringing activities (Napster’s permissive distribution was permitted to continue, as this is not infringing activity). Napster engaged in conduct that encouraged and facilitated the repetitive and free downloading of copyrighted music files; although the existence of a P2P file sharing system is not by-itself considered infringement, failure to remove copyrighted material that is knowingly downloaded is considered infringing activity. The court highlighted in this case that a service provider is not granted immunity from copyright infringement if it has the means to adopt, implement, and inform users of a policy for policing copyright infringement. 17 Additionally, the court made it clear that even if the activity does not involve the sale of copyrighted songs, infringement of copyright law still occurs if copyrighted material is distributed publically and freely without appropriate authorization. The record industry hailed the court’s decision in A&M Records Inc. v Napster Inc. as a significant victory; it’s impact reinforced the rights of copyright owners and provided much needed help in the fight

    Read More

  • Legal Issues of The Napster Website

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ng payment and royalty fees for their songs being downloaded and shared. These artists should be getting money for their music being sold just like how they are given royalty money for selling CDs. The main reason for Napster being shutdown was the lawsuits for piracy. (Tyson)

    Read More

  • Music on the Internet and Copyright Infringement

    3491 Words  | 7 Pages

    Napster quickly became a very popular web site with a 15 million registered users in less than a year, according to company sources. However, Napster’s remarkable success was not at its best interest. It had drawn the attention of the Record Industry, and raised its concerns of Copyright infringement in large volumes. Barely a year after its launch, it was sued by the RIAA, which represents major recording companies such as Universal Music, BMG, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and EMI. The RIAA claimed that by allowing users to swap music recordings for free, Napster’s service violated Copyright laws. Eventually, the judge ruled against Napster, and, failing to complete the sale deal with Bertelsmann AG, it had to shut down its operations and liquidate its assets [3].

    Read More

  • Downloading Music and Movies Harm the Artist

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    When you download a song or music with paying it is the same as you steal the money from the artists, because that’s the income for their hard work. Admittedly speaking, illegal downloading could expand market of music and movies, especially for those producers who are unfamiliar to most people. The illegal downloading music becomes a common phenomenon for many people who have experience on the Internet. Despite the legal and moral issues, majority of the people will accept how convenience the downloading music form the Internet will be. The digital music format has been available for a while for customers. Shawn Fanning, a young 18 years old student, created Napster in June 1999. Napster originated from two simple ideas, and achieved a straight goal: combining easily a file sharing program and a music search engine for seeking and distributing music on the Internet becoming easier. Although Napster lost the trial against the Recording Industry Association of America, the music...

    Read More

  • Importance of Intellectual Property Rights

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    While intellectual property is becoming more important, protecting the rights has become more vital as well as complicated as time goes on. An example of one of the internet’s well-known intellectual property cases is between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Napster. Napster was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America because of Napster was allowing people to share music files which resulted in thousands of people downloading music as opposed to buying CD’s or purchasing the music online.

    Read More

  • Online Music Sharing

    1193 Words  | 3 Pages

    Napster was started by accident by a college student trying to find a faster way to load and copy songs off of the internet. He some way found out how to load songs really fast. After finding out this information he put it on the internet so that other college students like himself who wanted to sample music could find it faster and easier just like he did.

    Read More

More about The Napster Lawsuit in the U.S.

Open Document