Discusses the legalities of file-sharing on the Internet.
Along with great technological advances, the digital music industry has created widespread controversy. Over the last five years, the digital music industry has become a very prominent tool for recording, dispersing, and consuming music. This paper discusses the conflict between the recording industry and sites such as KaZaa and Napster that promote peer-to-peer file-sharing. The author shows both sides of the argument and provides a personal opinion on the issue.
“The RIAA has also filed a suit against Diamond Multimedia for the Rio portable device that they have manufactured which is used to play MP3’s. This device allows its users to transfer MP3 files from their computer to the Rio. It also allows its users to make second-generation copies (copies of copies). There are numerous new portable MP3 players out on the market today, but because of the lack of restriction the Rio placed on second-generation copies it was forced to be taken off the market.”