Napster began in May 1999, when a young college student at Northeastern University created computer software that allowed users to swap MP3 files with other users of this service. At the time that meant hardly anything to anyone with connection to the Internet, considering most people didn’t know what a MP3 was, let alone what Napster was. Within months however, millions of people had signed up for Napster’s free service and were actively trading MP3s with ease. The problem was that many of the people trading these MP3s were doing so illegally, they did not own the music that they were downloading for free. This was especially a problem at places like college campuses where high-speed internet connections made it especially easy to download these files within seconds, as opposed to many home users using modems for which a single file could take up to 45 minutes to download. By finding a way to send all kinds of music to everyone with a computer, Napster triggered a spark that would ignite a revolution within both the computer and music industries.

The MP3 came about in 1992 when the Moving Pictures Experts Group approved MPEG-1 as standard for digital storage and retrieval of moving pictures and audio, and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III, or MP3, as the standard for CD quality audio clips. Simply put, a person could extract a song from any audio CD and compress it into an MP3 file, which would be small enough to store many of on a single computer’s hard drive. Generally, an MP3 at a quality of 128 Kilobytes per second takes up one Megabyte per minute of music. Using these mathematics, a 4:00 minute song would be about 4 Megabytes large, while the typical computer hard drive can hold anywhere from 10 to 100 Gigabytes of files (1 Gigabyte equals 1000 Megabytes)! Again using the mathematics, that mean a computer with a 60 GB (Gigabyte) hard drive could hold around 15,000 MP3s, that 15,000 separate songs on just one computer!

Making matters worse for the music industry, in the mid to late 1990s, the computer industry started making CD-recorders readily available to consumers. This meant the people who obtained MP3 files didn’t just have to keep them on their computers taking up space, they could “burn” (the term used for copying files onto a compact disc) them onto a CD and listen to them on their CD players or in their cars. This brought up a problem similar to when home tape recorders were introduced and people were able to copy their favorite records and tapes to other tapes and use or distribute them at will. The music industry (and video industry with VCRs) thought this would cost them billions of dollars in sales because they understandably felt that people would stop buying records if they could just copy their friends for free. This argument was resolved on August 28, 1992 when the Digital Audio Home Recording Act was passed that requires systems in recorders to prevent the serial copying of sound recordings; clarified - legality of home taping of analog and digital sound recordings for private use. This was an extension of the Copyright Act of 1976, and allowed users to copy music (and TV/video) for their own private use. The music, television, and film industries went along with this basically because they saw that home recording weren’t as good of quality as the original, and did not seem to affect sales too much.

With CD-recorders however, the quality of music recorded could be equal, and with the Internet, the possibilities of spreading illegally copied material was endless. A little later, portable MP3 players would hits the market, making it even easier to use MP3 files anywhere. Since 1990 and the creation of the “World Wide Web”, people using the Internet has increased rapidly, to the point where almost everyone has some sort of connection. What makes the World Wide Web unique is the striking appearance of information when it gets to your computer...this combined with its ease of use, make the Web the most poplar aspect of the internet. With the vast amount of people connected, and its ease of use, the World Wide Web quickly made the presence of Napster, and other programs like it such as Gnutella and AudioGalaxy, known very quickly. Ten million users downloaded Napster in the first nine months it was available. By downloading the software, users of Napster were able to search one another’s hard drives for MP3-stored music files and transport them to their own computers, for free. This, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), could not stand for.

In December of 1999, multiple record labels filed a lawsuit against Napster. They accused the company of encouraging the illegal copying and distribution of copyright music on a massive scale. Some of the most powerful recording companies joined in the lawsuit, including Seagram Co. Ltd.'s Universal Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group and EMI Group Plc. Guaranteeing high visibility for the industry argument that Napster abetted piracy, heavy metal rock band Metallica sued Napster, physically delivering 30 cardboard boxes containing the names of 335,000 Napster users who had, in the recording industry’s eyes, stolen Metallica’s music. Napster argued that it does not make the music available for people to download, it simply gives software to the people, and they chose what they do.

The RIAA based their argument mostly on the artists, and their rights to earn money for their work. However, in reality, many artists supported Napster and the MP3 format. Alanis Morissette had MP3.com (the main site for the MP3 technology) sponsor her 1999 tour. Other artists such Public Enemy publicly supported Napster and the MP3 movement as a way to simplify getting music to the people. Along those lines, Napster argued that its service even helped recording artists sell more music, as users could first sample an artist’s offerings the then go out and buy them on disc. However on July 26, 2000, U.S. Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued an injunction against Napster, ordering the company to prohibit copyrighted songs from appearing on its online file-sharing service, a move that would essentially shut the service down, while the main arguments about the recording industry's lawsuit progressed through the court system. While there have been numerous attempts to revive the service in recent months, such as one of the record companies involved in the Napster lawsuit, Bertelsmann AG, partnering with the service to offer a fee-based network, Napster is pretty much dead. Users have moved on to Napster copy-cats and alternative file-swapper service such as AudioGalaxy, Gnutella, and BearShare, some of which even allow users so swap more then just MP3s, but also compressed movie files, and pirated software.

I have to disagree with the RIAA’s stance that Napster was going to bring down the music industry. While I do think that artists should get paid for their work, I agree with Napster in saying that the swapping of MP3s often triggers sales of CDs because users can sample the music before they buy a whole CD. I know that was the case for me personally. Last year in school, I bought more CDs then I ever had previously thanks to my “sampling” them on Napster. There have always been ongoing feuds between the record companies and its’ artists over money and royalties, and the record companies are now trying to use the artists’ rights as a scapegoat for their own fears of losing money. For many musical acts out there that the record companies overlook, or under-promote, services like Napster serve as an invaluable way of getting their music out to people. I am not that angry however, since what shutting down Napster really did, was create hundreds of knock-off programs that offer more capabilities then Napster had. The industry should have embraced Napster, instead of fearing the unknown.

Recommended: Yes