It used to be when I heard a song on the radio, I had do a lot of research to figure out who sang it and what the name of the song was. After I figured that out, I would have to purchase a single of that song or the whole CD. Needless to say, it was a cumbersome process. That all changed, however, when peer-to-peer programming came onto the scene and forever altered the way people, especially college students, listened to music.
It’s no understatement that being able to experience all types of music, at no price and without hassle, positively impacted my life. Unfortunately, many groups of people are fighting to make sure the general public no longer can partake in the sharing of music.
Music sharing and swapping, sometimes referred to as peer-to-peer programming, first began when the Internet itself began, but most people would say it didn’t become a big deal until Napster was founded. Napster was sued by the record industry in 1999 and shut down in 2001. Other similar programs, like Kazaa and Line Wire, have since taken Napster’s place among the favorite peer-to-peer programs, but Napster always will remain the pioneer of this technology.
The people out to end the illegal swapping of copyrighted material aren’t discriminating against anyone, either. Recently, four college students were shocked to find that they were being sued for what they, and many others, consider providing an invaluable service. The record industry had decided to sue the students who were running Web sites that allowed students to connect to one another and share not just music files, but all files from computer to computer.
Many agree this singling out of four students and trying to set an example with them is unfair and is not going to persuade anyone to look at things from the record label’s perspective. It’s only making the four students, as well others around the country who provide similar services, wonder how they are going to pay for college and a multi-million dollar lawsuit against them.
All is not lost, however, because a recent court case has evened the score between us eager music sharers and the music and movie industries. A federal judge in California last week decided that two file-swapping programs, Morpheus and Grokster, were legal, much the same way other things, such as VCRs or copy machines are legal. All those things conceivably can infringe on copyrighted material, but at the fault of the user, not the means.
As much as I want to bash the music and movie industries, they do have a valid point. File-sharing technically is stealing. But the dinosaurs in the music industry need to face the facts: we’re crafty, and now that we’ve had this luxury, we’re not going to lose it without a fight. Instead of trying to end to file-sharing programs, the companies must explore new methods.
Instead of taking away this ability to share music, which could conceivably anger enough of us to impact record sales more so than music sharing is, record companies and movie studios need to get creative. If they can’t sell the music anymore, they need to start thinking of things we would buy instead.
What about having things such as online chat sessions with artists that required you to pay or tickets that went on sale early but cost more? What about beefing up what’s on CDs, so we get extra things we can’t find online? At least some people would be willing to pay money for these things, and this possibly would make up for the lost sales.
It is unclear who’s going to win this battle between the file-swapping college students and the record and movie industries. The battle probably will go on for quite a bit longer. Until, of course, some other technology is invented that is better than the CD and DVD and forces us all to start buying those things to listen to music.