Web Audio - Downloading Audio on the Internet

Web Audio: Downloading Audio on the Internet Legally and Illegally

Prospectus

Web Audio: Downloading Audio on the Internet Legally and Illegally

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the legality of downloading music over the Internet. The paper will reflect the different methods available for Internet downloading such as subscription and peer-to-peer sharing.

Methods and Procedures

The resources used to find information on the topic were found from articles in the Galileo Database including Academic Search Premier and Wikipedia. There is information taken from the AdviceNow website which specializes in independent law and rights advice. About.com is also used as an Internet source.

Organization

The research paper will begin with the history of downloading over the Internet. . Then there will with examples of ways to download audio both legally and illegally. The paper will conclude with the impact of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how it affected the legality of file sharing, and give then examples of file sharing cases, such as the Napster trial.

I. Introduction

a. Downloading facts and numbers

b. Types of downloading

II. History of Downloading Audio over the Internet

a. Illegal peer 2 peer websites

b. Legal peer 2 peer websites

III. File Sharing Cases

a. Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

b. Napster Case

c. Other cases

IV. Conclusion

V. Bibliography

Introduction

Everyday millions of computer users share files online. Whether it's music, games, or software, file sharing can give people access to an almost unlimited amount of information. File sharing by definition is the practice of making files available to other users for download over the Internet and smaller networks ("File sharing," par.1). An Internet surfer only needs to download the software that connects their computer to a network of other computers running the same software. Millions of users can be linked to each other through this software at one time. The software is often free and easily available. Services such as Kazaa, Ares, LimeWire and BearShare are examples of sites that offer these programs free of charge. Other times, the software may be offered in the form of a subscription, such as iTunes and Napster. But is file sharing ethical? The music industry says no, where as the millions of file sharers agree that downloading is.

History of Downloading Audio over the Internet

With broadband Internet service becoming more accessible and affordable, more people are looking to download audio over the web. File sharing first came into the public eye with the popularization of MP3 files in the mid- to late 1990s. MP3s would commonly be uploaded to free web space accounts such as Geocities and Tripod (Wikipedia, par.3). This process only worked for a small amount of time due to limited file space on websites. When peer-to-peer software was created, file sharing became easily usable by any Internet user. Napster, created in 1999, was the first major P2P file sharing tool and popularized file sharing for the masses (Wikipedia, par.3). After Napster was taken to trial for copyright violations, the peer-2-peer movement looked to be going out of business. Then a new wave of file sharing came along. These websites offered audio downloading with a paying subscription. Today there are many of these "pay-per-play" sites, as well as websites that allow for free, illegal, downloading.

Illegal Peer-2-Peer Websites

For many college students, money is short and time is limited, so anything that has a free price tag on it is appreciated. To see peer-2-peer file sharing from that viewpoint, one can understand the reason many illegal file sharing websites have loads of users. Examples of the websites that do allow free downloading include programs such as Kazaa, which was introduced in 2001. It's a controversial peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. The official Kazaa client can be downloaded free of charge and is financed by attached malware, despite the "No Spyware" message displayed on their website (Wikipedia, par 2). BearShare is another popular file sharing application. This program runs trough Microsoft Windows and is made by Gnutella applications. It's considered one of the forerunning Gnutella applications, along with LimeWire another free downloading program. These websites all are easily available, and are effortlessly downloaded everyday by thousands of web surfers.

Legal Peer-2-Peer Websites

On the other side, there are plenty of websites that offer legal subscriptions, such as Napster, Wal-Mart, and the ever-increasing popular iTunes. Even with the numerous free peer-2-peer file sharing websites available, the first consumption of digital music by today's young teen age group is more likely to come by way of iTunes and Wal-Mart (Bainwol). ITunes for example offers individual singles for $0.99 a track to full albums for $9.99. These are the same rates for the Wal-Mart site. Napster offers full year subscriptions for $9.99 per month for unlimited downloading. Even sites like Kazaa and Limewire offer "platinum" or "pro" packages of their software for a subscription fee. These versions as opposed to the standard versions, offer faster downloading and no pop ups or ads while in use.

File Sharing Cases

By the late 90's, peer-2-peer file sharing had become popular to use by many, especially on college campuses all across the U.S. Everyone from middle school kids through recent college grads were taking advantage of file sharing, whether it was making