?MP3 PIRACYTOPIC PARAGRAPH:The trading of MP3’s or digital music over the Internet is all ways going to be prevalentpart of the music industry, and is an unrealistic goal to try to control.
The cost of controlling thepiracy issues over the Internet would cost record companies more money than what they arelosing due to MP3 trading. The record industry is trying to fight the major sites and companies incourt with copyright suits. Quinlan states Although downloading music over the Internet andplaying it back on computer or portable digital music players has become increasingly popular,major record labels have been slow to embrace distribution over the Web because of the difficultlyin preventing unauthorized and unpaid copying of songs. THE MP3 FORMAT: MP3 is a file format which compresses audio files to efficiently store the audio data in filesthat can be easily downloaded on the Internet. MP3 files are identified by the file extensionMP3 and require specialized players which decompress the files and then play the audio files like aregular CD. For all practical purposes, mp3 files can be exact, near-perfect digital copies of theoriginal recorded material.
In other words, an mp3 file is a near-perfect copy of a cd and can bestored on a computer or other data storage media. MP3 shrinks audio files in such a way thatsound quality is preserved, but the file size is significantly smaller than it would be as a regular CDsong file. This means you are able, to download an entire song in only a few minutes. After that,you can play the song instantlyas many times as you want–regardless of your modem speed!Kimmel (1997) states Quite simply, the technology behind the MP3 audio format allows for highcompression ratio and CD- quality sound.
An Mp3 file compresses a sound file to one-twelfth itsoriginal size. (MPEG Audio Layer 3) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 andMPEG-2 specifications. Developed in Germany in 1991 by the Fraunhofer Institute, MP3 musicfiles are played via software or a handheld device. MP3 has made it feasible to download quality audio from the Web very quickly, causingit to become a worldwide auditioning system for new musicians and labels. Established bands postsample tracks from new albums to encourage CD sales, and new bands post their music on MP3sites in order to develop an audience.
The main legal controversy involved with MP3 files is that they are being traded aroundthe Internet without the artist consent of the artist or record companies. Kimmel (1997) states the following: It seem obvious that the use of MP3 technology does not for the most part, meet therequirements, set by the Copyright Law of 1976, to clam fair use for educational purposes. These arguments can include protection gaps, where copyright treaties only protectmaterial for a certain amount of time, thus making produced and distributed after this gaphas expired legal. Another legal justification of bootleg recordings is that the copyright isnot owned by the artist, publisher, or record company, though this defense has not been assuccessful as the protection gap defense.
This is what is making it easy for sites to be around such as MP3. com and programs such asNapster. Length, format, and approximate size of a 5 minute music files. FormatSize WAV60 MBRealAudio1 MB MP35 MBMy. MP3.
com:The chief argument theat MP3. com states is thus Robertson (2000) says When aconsumers buys a CD, does the industry get to tell the consumer where she can listen to hermusic? The type of technology that she can use to play her CD? Whether she can use new Internettechnologies? What about the fair use rights of the consumer, Hillary? The services thatMP3. com provides are as follows as long as you have purchased the CDs you are able to listen tothought their technology. As RIAA lawsuit (2000) states once user obtains permanent access toinfringing reproductions by placing an order for or confirming to defendant that he is in thepossession of an audio CD (or a copy, authorized or unauthorized, of an audio CD) containingthose sound recording he then has free rain over that site.
They had purchased a total of 80,000CDs and made them assessable to their viewers. If you start looking at what MP3. com is doing,the company is providing the music from records to people who have already bought them, saiddigital music lawyer Whitney Broussard. Even it is illegal, what are the damages because therearent really any lost sales? People still have to purchase the CDsKing (2000).
EventuallyMp3. com is planing to move to a system where you have to pay for listening to their services. Robertson (2000) states that we believe that the artists will benefit far more by having theInternet technologies given them the ability to make direct connection with their fans andultimately receive revenue on a pay-per-listen basis. Roberton also states We have everyintention of fighting your efforts to dictate the way people can listen to their music. I received aemail on may 11th from MP3.
com has voluntarily agreed to disable their content in theMy. MP3. com database while negotiations continue apace. As a result, you will, at this time, beunable to access the major labels’ content through your My.
MP3. com account. They did howeversay that it would be back up and running soon. NAPSTER:Napster is a program that has been created which connects you to everyone who is onlineat a time and shares all of there MP3 databases. It has a search engine enabled in the programwhere you can search for a song and down load it from a number of different accounts.
Boehlert (2000) states:Created by a 19-year-old college student, Napster which instantly connects users to oneanother stockpiles of mostly unauthorized MP3 files, free for the taking has rattled the recordindustry. Faced with the daunting prospect of consumers simply downloading entire libraries ofmusic for free, the labels trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America,(RIAA) quickly sued napster for trafficking in piracy. Napsters home page (2000):This Site is created and controlled by Napster from its offices within the state of Californiaof the United States of America. As such, the laws of the state of California will govern these disclaimers, terms, and conditions, without regard to or application of choice of law rules orprinciples.
Napster makes no representation that materials in the web site or the Napster serviceare appropriate or available for use in other locations, and access to them from territories wheretheir content or use is illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access this web site from otherlocations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable locallaws. The idea of Napster has frightened many artists and Boehlert states Everybodys freaked outabout Napster, a lot of the artists are just shocked when they here that there songs re beingpassed around for free. Most of the artist have been said to be scared about speaking out thebusiness end of there contracts in fear that they are going to be perceived as being greedy andthere sole purpose is in making money. RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA CASEThe RIAA is a spokes person for the following parties UMG RECORDING, INC, SONYMUSIC ENTERTAINMENT INC, WARNER BROS. RECORDS INC, ARISTA RECORDSINC, ATLANTIC RECORDING CORPORATION, BMG MUSIC THE RCA RECORDSLABEL, CAPITOL RECORDS, INC, INTERSCOPE RECORDS.
RIAA has recently suedMY. MP3. com as the law suit states:The defendant made unauthorized copies of those 80 000 audio CDs, loaded theunauthorized copies onto file servers, and is permitting users of its Internet service to listen to anddownload those unauthorized copies. Despite the plaintiffs requests, the defendant has refused todiscontinue this massive ongoing infringement. The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctiverelief, and statutory damages for willful copyright infringement.
. . Defendant has willfully and withfull knowledge of plaintiffs copyrights made infringing reproductions of thousands of plaintiffscopyrighted sound recordings for the purpose of operating its commercial My. MP3 interactiveservice. What now has to happen is RIAA has to get around all the loop hole that the companieshave used such as different state and laws accessability their.
It is also a really hard case to showbecause the record industry in 1999 grew or gained by three percent. Alex Walsh, the vicepresident of marketing for the RIAA said that just because sales are up does not mean that it istime to declare the digital piracy hasnt hurt the music business. . . There is just no way to tell howmuch we could have lost. There is no scientific or empirical way to determine how much moremusic we could have sold.
SONY Sony has been playing both sides of the field with the issue of MP3 piracy with the newrelease of their new minidisc walkman. Boire (2000) states Now all of you favorite music including MP3 files as well as CD tracks can be recorded on the high-quality, affordableMinidisc media. . . At about $3 for a blank MD, it is reasonable to create and update a personalizedMD mix for every activity with the latest downloadable tunes.
This shows how Sony know thatthis is the way of the future and wants to jump on the band wagon. Knowing that it is not going tobe possible to ever stop the illegal trade of MP3’s Sony has harnessed away of making money offof playing them. Reference of Resources:Eric, Baehelrt. March 24 2000. Artists to napster: Drop dead on-line.
Available http://www. salon. com/ent/feature/2000/03/24/napster_artists/index. htmlCaral, Bezane. Music Industry targets student theiefs on-line. Available http://www.
daily. iastate. edu/volumes/spring98/April-8-1998/top2. htmlBrad, Kimmel. Fall 1997. Distributing music over the Internet on-line.
Available http://www. duke. edu/bdk3/mp3. htmlTom, diederich. Recording industry group sues over MP3 on-line.
Available http://computer. idg. net/crd_fast_70587. htmlNo Author on the site. March 1 2000.
Sony harnesses the Internet with minidisc walkmanplayer/recourders on-line. Available http://www. sel. sony.
com/SEL/corpcomm/news/consumer/32. htmlBrad, King. Apr. 24, 2000 Despite ‘Piracy,’ CD Sales Up on-line. Available http://www. wired.com/news/business/0,1367,35848,00.htmlWords/ Pages : 1,872 / 24
