Since the beginning of the year 2002, file-sharing programs over the internet have been at great debate. Millions of people in their own homes are using the internet to illegally download everything from music to movies. MP3s are by far the most downloaded and shared file on the internet. Using such programs such as KaZaA, Morpheus, and Bearshare, pc users can easily download shared files for free which raises questions about the copyrighting and infringements laws. While millions of people are perfectly happy with getting these thing for free, the recording industries are worried about how this newest rage will effect the music industry in the future. MP3 programs should be allowed because it is not posing much of a threat to the record industries, is convenient and affordable, and would cost too much money to enforce copyright laws.

AT the end of 2001, the downloading of MP3 is a topic that is very controversial. To fully understand why it has been at great debate it is best to know what exactly an MP3 is and how it works. Created by Dieter Seitzer, a professor at the University of Erlangen, MP3 was developed to “create a high quality, low bit rate compression scheme…based

on the manipulation of the perceptual insufficiency of certain aspects of human hearing” (www.zdnet.com). Actually using the MP3 to download music from certain sites was not available until the “introduction of encoding and decoding tools and players for MP3” came about (www.zdnet.com). The audio files of an MP3 cannot even be heard until decoded and played in an Mp3 player, AMP, which was developed by Tomislav Uzelac and is used in Windows and Macs. Through the use of technology, Mp3 files became available to the general public which inevitably led to phenomenon of downloading MP3 files (www.zdnet.com).

While millions of people have jumped on the file-sharing bandwagon, the music industry has not been severely threatened by these so-called infringers. Napster, an MP3 program shut down because the music industries felt it violated copyright laws, was only the beginning. Now traffic on programs such as KaZaA and Audiogalaxy have sky rocketed since Napster’s close. With tons of files being swapped everyday, one might think that the music sales have dropped dramatically, however, that is not case. A recent study states that “file-sharing led to 5% fewer CD sales worldwide last year” (“Digital Music Hardly a Lucrative Sector” 2). Although the sales are down, bands like ‘N Sync “broke the one week record for CD sales, ringing up more than 2.5 million” copies sold of one of their albums (Band 2). One suggestion that is being made is that people are previewing what they hear on such MP3 programs and then “buy the higher-qualit

Some topics in this essay:
Lucrative Sector”, Matt Bailey, Morpheus Bearshare, Erlangen MP3, Eye Blind, KaZaA Audiogalaxy, Windows Macs, Programs Internet, Audiogalaxy CD, Napster MP3, mp3 programs, cd sales, file-sharing programs, featherly 2, copyright laws, millions people, chmielewski 2, music industry, qtd chmielewski 2, mp3 files, band 2,