The type of crime I am talking about is file sharing over the Internet. Particularly music files otherwise known as MP3 files. MP3 is short for MPEG audio layer three, which is an audio compression file that enables you to download high fidelity music from the web by shrinking the file. This has been made extremely popular by a program called Napster, which allows people to share music over the net in MP3 form. One can imagine why this sort of program may be loved by some and hated by others.

Napster was designed in 1999 by a college drop out by the name of Shawn Fanning. Acc

There are many social benefits that come from downloading music if you are a Napster lover. If you have the right equipment at home then you can get music you like in a matter of 5-10 minutes, without spending a dime. Some of the right equipment would include; a computer and an internet connection (high speed preferably). If you plan on downloading a lot of music you may need to a big hard drive on the computer because MP3’s take up a lot of storage space on the hard drive. This actually helps the computer companies (i.e. Compaq, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Dell and many more) because people have to buy the equipment to be able to download.

Another social disadvantage would be the copyright violation. If they let people get away with sharing music then what would the point of copyright be for. Will it turn into being able to copy someone’s words out of book as long as its on the Internet. The copyright laws have been around for hundreds of years. How can you just all of a sudden say that you can break the law as long as it is on the Internet. The music industry would probably take a big downfall in revenue and they may have to find another way to make money.

The other side of this argument comes from the people that absolutely hate Napster. Musicians, record companies and anyone that makes money off the sale of music are Napster’s biggest enemies, and the reason why is money. When someone can download a song for free he or she is less likely to go out and buy that CD.

Another common consideration is if is ethical or not. Ethics is a hard topic to talk about because is has so much to do with people’s opinion. Part of ethics is if is right or not. So the question is it is right or not to steal someone else’s music. That question is self explanatory. It is not right to steal anything from anyone. But some people say it is not stealing. So if it is not stealing is it ethical. There are also some people that think that even a computer is not ethical to use and you need a computer to download music. The ethics of t

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