FREE ESSAY ON WHO'S REALLY STEALING

WHO'S REALLY STEALING

Intro
I can still picture those long lines and high prices of the latest CD. This has now
become just another one of my childhood memories. No more lines or handing someone else
my twenty-dollar bill. We can get our music for free now. This has been called one of the
best inventions of the century. Many people including myself spend hours on top of hours
downloading all those hard to get songs. Finally the consumers are the ones in control.
Summary
Shawn fanning a nineteen-year-old multi million dollar dropout had the same dream as many
Americans had. One day he awoke and didn't go back to sleep until his task was completed.
What was his task? To create a software program where people could share their music for
free. This technology is called peer-to-peer file sharing and it's the biggest thing to
hit the Internet since the Internet. Money and lawsuits are now rolling into Shawn's
pockets like water. Record companies have been working feverishly day and night to try
and put a stop to this fad. Companies realized how much this would affect their profits.
Buyers could pay $18.99 plus tax for a CD or just spend twenty minutes online for free.
As of yet, no one has been able to stop Napster. Even though some court cases are still
in judgment it doesn't look to good for the record companies. This has knocked record
companies on their feet. Napster is going to stay running for now.
Response
Napster. One word that is known by people of middle class, lower class, old, young,
black, white nearly any classification. What would a car be like without a stereo? Can
you imagine? Music is very important to people just like their money. So why waste your
money when you don't have to. Napster, while being praised by buyers, hated by artists,
and loved by Internet geeks, has done wonders to the music and Internet industry.
Many artists have tried to stop this worldwide trend by filling lawsuits and starting
groups against Napster. Metallica filed a lawsuit and won yet their music is still being
download. On the other hand Limp Bizkit recently did a concert with Napster as the sole
advertiser. Still, artists seem to think this software is legal theft. Companies have
stilled failed to look at the hard facts. The music industry has had a 6.4% increase for
this year alone (SpeakOut). Records are being broken with groups like N'Sync selling 2.4
million CD's the first week of sales (SpeakOut). So why are record companies and artists
still angry? Greed!!! Napster is good for publicity. I'm sure a new group wouldn't mind
having their music downloaded by 800 million people. That's as good as it gets.
What is music made for? Last I heard it was for people. If this is true why don't we have
a say in this matter? This is looked over by companies. Since Napster's debut people have
been able to download that song they haven't heard since they were sixteen. Many people
support Napster and resent the fact that it's called stealing. Prices have increased
about five dollars a CD (SpeakOut). Napster gives hard working people a chance to sit by
the fire and listen to their favorite jazz piece. Besides all this is, is another hobby.
I don't care how cheap you are no one is going to download and burn a CD as a Christmas
gift. People are still going to go to the store and reach for the plastic wrapped case.
If the courts decide to ban Napster there is always going to be some kind of loop whole,
I mean c'mon it's the Internet. So why waste more of your money with expensive lawsuits?
Shawn fanning's invention of the P2P system is one of the biggest talked about subjects
in technology. People can use it to download whole movies off the Internet and even the
Centers for Disease Control are using it. Our own government!!! This is only the
beginning to a whole new e-era. Hundreds of services are going to branch off from
Napster. So why try to ban Napster when your going to have to do the same thing with
hundreds of other categories. Obviously P2P is here to stay and sorry to burs your bubble
but so is Napster.
Honestly record companies are going to have to learn to "suck it up". Like the old saying
goes, if you can't beat 'em join 'em. Who knows the industry could be trying to get rid
of something that is just as poplar as music. Money, since this is their main concern,
can be through Napster. If record labels could just pull their head out of their butts
and actually cooperate with their foe, the case could be shut. After all isn't there more
music listeners than big time executives and artists?
Bibliography
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