Is downloading songs off of Napster morally acceptable?
I. Utilitarianism
II. Deontological
The court ruling violates Napsters First Amendment right of free speech. An order to shut down Napster would "silence the entire Napster community", violating the users free speech rights as well.
Napster has not violated any laws. "Users are not direct copyright infringers because they are covered by the immunity granted by the AHRA, Audio Home Recording Act." This act explicitly allows unlimited copying for personal use. Section 1008-immunizes all non-commercial consumers copying of music in digital or analog form.
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Its always been said that if you build a better and more sophisticated rat trap, you only develop a better, even more sophisticated rat. The same goes for Napster. If you shut Napster down, the servers--which were streamlined under the Napster umbrella--won't stop working. In fact, downloading will continue on with little or no "hiccup" from Napsters' doom.
Now users will just seek out a bigger and better Napster copycat.
File swapping is no different than copying a VHS tape or burning a CD with a CD burner, or even using a copy machine to copy pages out of a book. All three are a form of copyright infringement, yet is covered under the AHRA as legal as long as it's for personal use. Shawn Fanning, creator of the Napster "monster", isn't responsible for what users do with the information pulled off of his server. If so, does it also mean that I can sue the Nissan car company if someone runs their Sentra into my living room? No. The car company is not liable after the consumer takes the vehicle. So should it be for companies such as Napster.
Another approach to "place blame" would be to look at the companies who make the machines...
The Music Fans vs. The Music Industry
This is a very informative and well-researched piece. I agree whole-heartedly with your view on this situation. After Napster was originally shut down, I just started going to other peer-to-peer fileswapping programs. As long as the music is not being resold, there should be no problem.
On the other hand, there will soon arise the problem of sharing movies from DVDs, and I feel this will incite a much fiercer battle from the movie industry. Music can always be performed live, and artists can do many other things such as touring and selling merchandise to make money, but once filesharing is popularized for movies, there will be a much different battle at hand. I know that wasn't the subject of your piece, but it is very relevant to these types of peer-to-peer programs. Good job overall. I enjoyed this short essay.
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