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Show HINCKLEY JOURNAL OF POLITICS 2002/2003 Napster: The Story Behind the Controversy Katie Stahl Napster and the peer-to-peer technology it introduced to mainstream America have changed the way people communicate on the Internet and have forced careful consideration of the future of copyright law and its interpretation in the United States. This paper presents a historical background of Napster, an explanation of the technology that made it controversial, the differing views of artists affected by the site, and why Napster has quite possibly changed forever the fate of copyright law. While Napster itself has been shut down, it serves as an important example of how changing technology is forcing a revaluation and reformulation of related law. INTRODUCTION While serving an internship in Washington, D.C. during the fall of 2000, I had the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of Napster and the controversy surrounding its fate. This paper will examine what Napster is, the technology that made it possible, the copyright laws that made it controversial, how musicians viewed Napster, and why the technology that Napster propagated cannot be stopped, even if this specific site has been. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAPSTER The story of Napster can be divided into two segments: its explosive growth as music sharing technology; and its steady decline as music companies successfully brought an injunction against the firm for copyright infringement. Thus the company was forced to change its business model. This paper will focus on Napster's first segment, as the central thesis of the paper is that even if Napster remains shut down, the technology it developed is forcing a reevaluation and reformulation of copyright law. Napster was a website people could go to and download music for free. At one time, Napster was the world's largest file sharing community as well as the largest conglomeration of music lovers on the planet (Napster, 200la). It not only provided music, it provided a complete network of vehicles for people to share their interests and tastes as well. If a person had access to the Internet, he or she not only had access to an enormous amount of music, but to an entire community of music lovers. This included an Instant Messenger to keep in touch with your friends in the Napster community, fifty-five Napster chat rooms, a free Napster newsletter, and a Katie Stall] graduated in 2002 with an Honors B.S. in Political Science and Communication. Her future plans include study in Europe and continued work in Washington D.C. Hot List function that notified you when certain people are online and ready to share. This complex technology could be up and running for the first time in five to ten minutes. After typing napster.com in the URL window, the next step was to download Napster Share Ware software onto one's computer from Napster's homepage. The Napster software took about five minutes to download to your computer, and after entering some basic information, one now had an account with Napster. By simply typing the name of an artist or song title into the search field, any music files currently being shared by other Napster users that matched one's search criteria appeared on a list. The individual's window was then transformed and one was connected to the Napster users who were sharing those files. It was not necessary to share files in order to enjoy the benefits of downloading. There were no requirements for people to put music on to share. It was completely voluntary. It was also possible to download more than one song at a time. Frequently people downloaded six to eight songs at the same time. Napster also worked at improving its technology and providing quicker connections and downloading time. Free download updates were available for current users from the website and people were encouraged to take advantage of these and download the new technology as it became available. As can be imagined, Napster was a very popular service. By October 2000, Napster claimed over thirty-two million users and to be growing steadily at a rate of one million new users each week (Fanning 2000, 2). As of February 2001, Napster stated it had over fifty million members (Napster, 200la). Whether these numbers were inflated remains to be seen. An independent tracking firm, Jupiter Media Metrix, provided a February 2001 estimate of 14 million online music users, with Napster accounting for all but a very small portion of those users (Foege, 2002). Over 800,000 people used the system simultaneously on a regular basis, a number limited 57 |