University Wire
02-21-2001
(The Orion) (U-WIRE) CHICO, Calif. -- With the help of Napster, many college students have saved money by sharing music from the Internet. But a Feb. 12 court ruling could make free music swapping a thing of the past.
At the end of a 10-month lawsuit, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Napster will be forced to stop offering its free music service.
For many students, this decision comes as a blow to their music budgets. Napster made it possible for students, and more than a million other users, to download and listen to virtually any type of music, without having to pay for it.
Eric Fieland, 22, said that because he mainly listened to music at home, he almost never bought CDs because he could get all the music free off of Napster.
"It's like a kid in a candy store, except it's better because this candy is free," Fieland said.
Generation MP3, which was instrumental in the success of music sharing sites such as Napster, will also be affected by the shut down.
Giustina Flocchini, a 22-year-old recreation administration major at California State University at Chico, said she took advantage of Napster, and it saved her money because she didn't buy as much music.
"It's nice being able to get it all for free. Your less apt to have to go and buy CDs," Flocchini said.
Napster, which was originally developed by a 19-year-old college student, is essentially a music search engine which links thousands of computers to compile a huge and constantly updated library of MP3s.
According to the court, Napster "knowingly encourages and assists its users to infringe the record companies' copyrights."
The majority of the record industry's biggest labels sued Napster Inc. in December 1999. This included such artists as Metallica and Dr. Dre who filed separate copyright infringement suits in April.
Napster responded to the court decision on its Web site by stating that "as the details of the recent 9th Circuit Court ruling unfold, please keep this is mind: Napster is not shut down, but under this decision it could be. We are very disappointed in this ruling by the three-judge panel and will seek appellate review. The Court today ruled on the basis of what it recognized was an incomplete record before it. We look forward to getting more facts into the record. We will pursue every avenue in the courts and the Congress to keep Napster operating."
Many Chico State University students also disagree with the ruling.
"It's almost the same thing as when radio first came out. Most artists were opposed to it, but then they realized how much publicity it gave to their music," said student Joe Leahy, 20. "Hopefully record companies will realize that about Napster."
It is not clear when Napster will be officially shut down, but most likely it will be fairly soon.
However, in the two years since the creation of Napster, literally dozens of other music sharing sites have opened up.
On Feb. 12, the Associated Press reported that file-sharing software has staying power because its decentralized technology empowers anyone with a computer to make songs available to millions of users.
Gnutella, Imesh and Aimster are just three of such sites.
Gnutella is not as susceptible to the types of copyright infringement laws as Napster because instead of having a central server, it is peer-to-peer sharing.
IMesh is not as big, so the selection is somewhat smaller, but in addition to music, users can also exchange software, video and image files.
Aimster integrates file sharing with an instant messenger.
(C) 2001 The Orion via U-WIRE
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