Napster was a big sharing software released years ago starting around 2000. The easy access and availability of free fresh creative content at your fingertips was almost too good to be true. There was something wrong with the fact that any content could be accessed with no charge easily knowing that there is actually a price tag behind it. The Napster case shut down the pirating industry to the point that now sharing portals are heavily monitored for content that is stolen. Big Labels have technology services that can capture your IP and contact your ISP to bill you for the content you stole or can take you to court for it. This incident went down in 2001 where A&M Records took Napster, Inc. to court.
As file sharing exploded everyone realized how easy it was to not pay for your favorite content and just share it. Labels were losing big money because of this act. It can be said that the subjects starting this business were criminals with criminal intentions and that was the reason this case did not turn in their favor. One of the most widely shared files on Napster were MP3’s. It is hard to say whether the intention of the business was even honest from the start. As it discusses in a book called Digital Culture Industry, (Robertson 45) looking into the profiles of the first beginning members to launch the development of the sharing giant Napster, they were all originally hackers with advanced criminal knowledge in code. Even with heavy defense it was obvious that when you can find the same album for $10 on iTunes there is something wrong with downloading it for free on a sharing network yet the world took advantage of this golden era in content sharing. The original creator probably knew this was illegal even a child can see this if his favorite album is for sale at the store down the street and on his ipod in the itunes store then something must be wrong with downloading it for free through a sharing network. Not only did this effect the music industry but as well as software companies, movies, and games.
Even though all this risk was obviously applied to this development, the creators went ahead and wrote this platform that altered history. Content was shared left and right and many artists suffered from this massive advancement in sharing technology. Labels were shook and lost a fortune, that they themselves had to find measures to stop the trend. Before the sharing of music illegal and legal it could have been said that many of this content that include music, movies, and programs were only for the wealthy who could afford it at the mall or store. Content was harder to send out to masses and that was only made possible through television and the radio. Big artists made a fortune back in the 90s because people would have to actually go to the store and buy the cd, like Britney Spears. Labels also had issues with the streets selling bootleg cd’s and dvd’s. When sharing came into the scene that was when the war turned into a cyber sharing war and it was a golden era for the people where masses received all kinds of expensive content at no charge. Because of this everyone was able to access all kinds of new music and movies at no charge, this also opened the gate for poor people to have access to expensive high end software to educate themselves with. Artists, labels, and software business like Adobe and Microsoft Word lost a lot of money and due to this it was harder for artists to become big when everyone can easily steal their new album. This is the reason you now see everything is a subscription in a cloud that updates software constantly and we have streaming platforms like Spotify. Many artist now have to do extra things to make up for this loss like indulge in business.
In the end Napster knew what they were doing as discussed in this online law article, (Case Study: A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc). The case was mostly trying to determine the use of the material and its nature. The court was also looking at the amount of damages that were related to this cause. The court demanded that proper action be taken for companies to be replenished. The crime was still ongoing and it was not until MGM took them to the court to sue them and the pirate bay. It is a very big and controversial case that went on for years and now they have really gotten to the bottom of it. Security has been established and even though sharing is still available today it is best not to because they will catch you . At the end of the day it is better to just go to your local neighborhood record store or just get on iTunes support your favorite artists.
Works Cited
Allen-Robertson, James.Digital Culture Industry : A History Of Digital DistributionHoundmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)Web. 21 Feb. 2017
“Case Study: A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.” Case Study: A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. – Blog | @WashULaw. N.p., 01 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.