Napster

12 Pages 2946 Words

ording to Webster’s New World Dictionary, copyright is defined as the exclusive right to the publication, production, or sale of the rights to a [ musical ] work. It also says that the period of copyright in the United States is twenty-eight years and a chance for one renewal for another twenty-eight years. Notice that it said the sale of the rights to a musical work, and Shawn Fanning certainly doesn’t have enough money to buy the rights to 90% of all copyrighted music out there. So sharing a multitude of Mp3’s on one program in many computers around the world would definitely constitute a copyright violation, or infringement. The ironic thing is, Napster itself does have a copyright policy and it specifically states:
In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the text of which may be found on the U.S. Copyright Office web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright), Napster will respond expeditiously to claims of copyright infringement committed using the Napster server that are reported to Napster’s “Designated Copyright Agent” identified below. If you are a copyright owner, or authorized to act on behalf of an owner of the copyright or of any exclusive right under the copyright, please report your notice of infringement by completing the following notice from and delivering it to the Designated Copyright Agent. (Napster Copyright Policy)
Technically, because it is a national law, copyright laws pertain to every person living in the United States. Only the artists that make their own work, if they don’t sell the rights, can do whatever they want with the piece they create. But the real question is: Is Napster violating the law?
Many recording artists and record labels have been in an uproar about this simple program since its popularity in early 2000. One of the most popular artists to be involved with this catastrophe of freedom of speech and expression, has been a hard rock group known as Metal...