What is Napster?
Napster allows computer users to find and download music for free over the net.
How does it work?
Computer users can record CDs as high-quality MP3 files to listen to on their computer or on MP3 players. At napster.com you can download software that allows you to make a library of your music files and connect your own personal collection to the outside world. Users can browse through other people's collections and copy tunes that they like, or simply search for a track that they want. Effectively, Napster has created a directory of the best MP3s on the net.
Do many people use it?
Made freely available in January this year, by March five million people had downloaded the software. Napster claims its user base grows between 5% and 25% daily: 70 million people were expected to be using Napster by the end of this year. By February, 60% of available bandwidth at the university of Indiana was taken by students leaving Napster on all the time. Several US campuses have now blocked the service. Earlier today it was estimated 1,400 songs were being downloaded each minute via Napster's software.
Why is it controversial?
Napster embodies the sharing, community-based ethos of the internet pioneers or operates theft on a massive scale, depending on your point of view. The music industry claims most of the songs traded are pirated, and that song-swapping via Napster has cost them more than $300m (£200m) in lost sales.
How did the court case come about?
The Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster for 'contributory copyright infringement' last December, accusing it of encouraging an unrestrained, illegal, online bazaar. Rock group Metallica also sued, claiming that more than 300,000 Napster users had traded its songs online. Napster reacted by blocking more than 30,000 people from its service, but new users carried on swapping Metallica's music.
What is happening now?
A judge has granted a preliminary injunction ordering that Napster's service be suspended from midnight on Friday, July 28, pending the trial.
What is Napster's case?
Napster say that trying to eliminate trading in copyrighted music would inevitably result in blocking legally traded songs as well; that personal copying of music is protected by federal law; and that its service should be considered a non-infringing use. They point to a precedent in the Sony Betamax case, when the film industry tried unsuccessfully to block the production of VCRs, claiming they would be used primarily to make illegal copies of copyrighted movies. Napster argues it doesn't actually hold any files, it just allows people to trace files for download and is essentially powerless to stop users trading copyrighted material.
Does it affect record sales?
Some research has suggested Napster may actually promote interest in buying music. A study of more than 2,200 online music fans by Jupiter Communications found users of music-sharing programs to be 45% more likely buy more music than other fans.
Will the Napster case end online swapping of copyright material?
The music industry certainly hopes so. But other file-sharing sites, such as Gnutella, exist and their technical status makes them a more difficult legal target. Meanwhile, the film and music industries are launching another action against Scour.com, who help users search the net and exchange not only MP3s but copyrighted films and images too.
Useful links
Napster
The Recording Industry Association of America
RIAA statement on Napster case
Gnutella
Scour
