The Need for Speed

MP3 PIRACY

The trading of MP3's or digital music over the Internet is always going to be a prevalent part of the music industry, and is an unrealistic goal to try to control. The cost of controlling the piracy issues over the Internet would cost record companies more money than what they are losing due to MP3 trading. The record industry is trying to fight the major sites and companies in court with copyright suits. Although downloading music over the Internet and playing it back on computer or portable digital music players has become increasingly popular, major record labels have been slow to embrace distribution over the Web because of the difficultly in preventing unauthorized Ð'- and unpaid Ð'- copying of songs. (Quinlan 3).

MP3 is a file format, which compresses audio files to efficiently store the audio data in files that can be easily downloaded on the Internet. (MPEG Audio Layer 3) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications. Developed in Germany in 1991 by the Fraunhofer Institute, MP3 music files are played via software or a handheld device. MP3 files are identified by the file extension MP3 and require specialized players, which decompress the files and then play the audio files like a regular CD. For all practical purposes, mp3 files can be exact, near-perfect digital copies of the original recorded material. In other words, a mp3 file is a near-perfect copy of a CD and can be stored on a computer or other data storage media. MP3 shrinks audio files in such a way that sound quality is preserved, but the file size is significantly smaller than it would be as a regular CD song file. This means you are able, to download an entire song in only a few minutes. After that, you can play the song instantly. You are able to play the song as many times as you want regardless of your modem speed. Quite simply, the technology behind the MP3 audio format allows for high compression ratio and CD- quality sound. A Mp3 file compresses a sound file to one-twelfth its original size. (Kimmel 1).

The main legal controversy involved with MP3 file's is that they are being traded around the Internet without the artist consent of the artist or record companies. It seems obvious that the use of MP3 technology does not for the most part, meet the requirements, set by the Copyright Law of 1976, to clam fair use for educational purposes. These arguments can include protection gaps, where copyright treaties only protect material for a certain amount of time, thus making produced and distributed after this gap has expired legal. Another legal justification of bootleg recordings is that the copyright is not owned by the artist, publisher, or record company, though this defense has not been as successful as the protection gap defense. This is what is making it easy for sites to be around such as MP3.com and programs such as Napster. (Kimmel 1). MP3 has made it feasible to download quality audio from the Web very quickly, causing it to become a worldwide auditioning system for new musicians and labels. Established bands post sample tracks from new albums to encourage CD sales, and new bands post their music on MP3 sites in order to develop an audience.

The chief argument MP3.com states is when a consumers buys a CD, does the industry get to tell the consumer where she can listen to her music? The type of technology that she can use to play her CD? Whether she can use new Internet technologies? What about the fair use right's of the consumer? (Robertson 86). The services that MP3.com provides are legal as long as you have purchased the CDs you are able to listen to thought their technology. As RIAA lawsuit states once a user obtains permanent access to infringing reproductions by placing an order for or confirming to defendant that he is in the possession of an audio CD containing those sound recording. He then has free rain over that site. They had purchased a total of 80,000 CDs and made them assessable to their viewers. Eventually Mp3.com is planning to move to a system where you have to pay for listening to their services. Robertson (86) states that " we believe that the artists will benefit far more by having the Internet technologies given them the ability to make direct connection with their fans and ultimately receive revenue on a pay-per-listen basis." Robertson also states " We have every intention of fighting your efforts to dictate the way people can listen to their music." I received an email on May 11th from MP3.com has voluntarily agreed to disable their content in the My.MP3.com database while negotiations continue apace. As a result, you will, at this time, be unable to access the major labels' content through your My.MP3.com account. They did however say that it would be back up and running soon.

Napster is a program that has been created which connects you to everyone who is online at a time and shares all of their MP3 databases. It has a search engine enabled in the program where you can search for a song and down load it from a number of different accounts. Created by a 19-year-old college student, Napster which instantly connects users to one another stockpiles of mostly unauthorized MP3 files, free for the taking Ð'- has rattled the record industry. Faced with the daunting prospect of consumers simply downloading