Person to person file sharing has become rather popular online. With programs that can be found on search engines and downloaded, such as Napster, one individual can look at files offered to them by others, as well as share their own. Programs differ slightly in how they can be used, as to make the user seem a bit more comfortable with them. Some can be used by entering a keyword, and receiving the matching results, such as a person might do using a search engine like Yahoo. With others, there is a list of usernames that can be clicked on to view that individuals files, as well as their connection speed, and some other information about them. With over 35 million people now using the internet, over 7 million of them in the US alone, it is easy to find and download anything you would like (Clark 1). Depen

The music industry has already taken many websites and their owners to court to try and get their sites shut down, and have started to succeed. A federal judge found MyMP3.com guilty of copyright infringement and ordered them to be shut down. Along with this ruling came a payment of $25,000 –a sum that could total $250 million- to be paid to Universal Music Group for every disc that was on the website which belonged to that record company. MP3.com settled with the rest of the record companies for about $20 million each. The movie industry is also starting to take part in the legal action. They have sued the maker of a hacker magazine which has codes for hacking into DVDs on their website. Another site that has copies of television shows users can download called the “virtual VCR” is also about to be shut down by the movie industry. As these websites keep popping up, there are starting to become just as many lawsuits against them (Jost 1).

The music industry and major record companies do not perceive it this way. They feel that music fans will simply download and burn copies of all their favorite full albums. Different countries have taken different steps to try and stop person to person file sharing. “In the UK, OD2 is launching Digital Download Day in conjunction with major record labels, including BMG, EMI, and Warner, and a range of independent labels” (US plumps, 1). This is a day that everyone is allowed to obtain GBP5 worth of online music for free. According to the UK, if the public can have a chance every so often to do this, it may slow down rising number of people doing it illegally.

The US on the other hand has started an ad campaign that uses artists like Madonna and Britney Spears to convey the message to the public that downloading music is stealing it, and very much illegal. There are even commercials that Spears compares mp3 downloads to shoplifting. This message is not getting through to very many people, and makes it obvious that the music industry may not be approaching the problem correctly. “The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), according to KPMG, is focusing its efforts on protecting its content from piracy, rather than developing ways to effectively deliver music online” (Computing Canada 30). There is a large demand for a way to receive music and other files by person to person sharing. Stopping it dead in its tracks will only lead to more downloads.

There have been many inventions that have made it easier to copy and distribute material that is owned by another person, and it is not a new idea. Once the printing press was invented, ideas spread quicker, making it easier to copy someone else’s work. The photocopier was the next big invention where people could then take a book, and simply copy word for word what it said with the push of a few buttons. The MP3 player is one of the newer inventions that may have speeded up how many internet users download music. This device is small enough to fit in your hand, and can hold up to tw

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