File Downloading

13 Pages 3354 Words

created by Shawn Fanning, was the first of its kind to spread the fame of digital music files known as MP3s. Two simple definitions for MP3s are: 1. An MPEG standard designed particularly for digitally sending music over the Internet. 2. A file containing a song or any other sound data that is set using this standard.
Fanning created the easiest and most inexpensive way to acquire music ever. There was no need to drive to a music store and purchase music anymore; it was all free thanks to all the internet users who copied music tracks onto their hard drives and placed them into a specific folder know as a shared folder. Once the music was in the shared folder, anyone who downloaded the software required for access to Napster’s network could download it from anywhere worldwide. Regardless whether the music files were copyrighted or not, millions downloaded from this network every day sharing more and more files as the days of Napster continued.
A little after a year from the opening of this popular file sharing network, Napster came to an end in July of 2000 after U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that Napster could no longer allow the file sharing of copyrighted music. On March 5th, previous to the ruling that came for Napster, Fanning struggled to remain Napster existent by blocking over 2 million songs from being shared over the network and by trying to apply the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 in their defense. “17 USC 1008, from the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, says that non-commercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings is not copyright infringement. Non-commercial includes such things as resale not in the course of business, perhaps of normal use working copies which are no longer wanted. It’s unlikely to include resale of copies in bulk and Napster tried to use the Section 1008 defense but was rejected because it was a business” (www.encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.c...