| qoprowler.com |
The Prowler |
| Generation
of music downloading By Hannah Woolf, Managing Editor Music is what feelings sound like. Maybe the feelings are amplified when we don't have to pay for the music. Over the past few years, obtaining free music has become increasingly simple and overwhelmingly commonplace, thanks to the illicit beauty of file- sharing programs (optimized by high-speed internet) and the subsequent distribution of CD burners. The current "in" program is KaZaA Media Desktop. According to The Augusta Chronicle online, "At a typical moment, about 4 million KaZaA users are sharing some 800 million files--movies, pictures, songs, and more. Most are unauthorized." While people all over the world are merrily mixing their own CDs, a mass of turmoil has passed by the file sharing world, a world we take for granted. At the moment, what many students don't know--or what they choose to ignore--is that KaZaA is involved in a legal battle with the entertainment industry. Sharman Networks, the Australian company that owns KaZaA, filed a countersuit against the movie and recording industries in late January, responding to a lawsuit made against Sharman involving charges of copyright infringement. Sharman's counterclaims include copyright misuse, monopolization, and deceptive acts and practices. It is not just that high schoolers are oblivious to the legal battles behind their favorite programs; many are simply not concerned. Freshman Priti Patel is one of those students. She's confident that "they can't track down millions of people." But this is a perfect example of the typical student's naïveté. In May 2000, when Metallica was in the midst of suing then-popular Napster, the band produced a list of 335,000 Napster users who were allegedly trading illegal copies of Metallica's music. Freshman Candy Amato says, "If it's illegal, why don't they enforce it?" "They" certainly have tried to. Going back in time, the freshmen of 1999 did not use KaZaA--the program was not yet born. At that time, the hot new program was the ill-fated Napster, created by Northeastern University students Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. This program was actually responsible for the music distribution revolution. On May 5, 2000, Federal District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel--pressured by media and entertainment companies--ruled that Napster was violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. That July, the same court ordered Napster to shut down. Almost two years of legal strife followed that act, but in the end Napster was forced to file for bankruptcy before it could take full advantage of anti-trust issues, and the superpower fell. Yet Napster's legacy remains. An afternapster.com is devoted to the gone-but-trying-not-be-forgotten king of music. Unfortunately, what many students do not realize, especially those who only know the current generation of programs, is that KaZaA is following in the footsteps of its doomed predecessor. It is almost déjà vu, with KaZaA making similar claims of "collusion and abuse of copyright" that Napster made to defend itself against record labels and movie studios. When the current seniors were freshmen, MP3 file sharing enjoyed a growth spurt. Beginning in May of 1999, the program Napster began to gain popularity. This year's freshmen, however, are even more well-versed in the art of file sharing. "It's a great thing," Freshman Alex Biglow says. "It saves me a lot of money to use KaZaA." And there's another thing that makes file sharing programs so attractive to high schoolers: students can create their own CDs. Hundreds of times more high-tech and high-quality than the off-the-radio mixed tapes of the last generation, home-made CDs offer students myriad advantages. Freshman Scott Dubin explains, "Instead of buying a whole CD, I can download specific songs." Now that CD burners have essentially become a staple in every household, not only downloading music, but "producing" one's own CDs, is a typical high schooler's activity. "Free songs equals free CDs," freshman Corey Hassett says. Of course, not everyone uses KaZaA. Senior Daniel Doggett says, "The program that I use for downloading MP3's is called Morpheus. It is a similar program to KaZaA. These programs help me discover new artists and give me a sample of albums that I may decide to buy." And not everyone does it, period. Particularly those who do not have access to high speed internet may view downloading music as a waste of time. Freshman Alexis Bergen says, "it's so slow...it takes too long." But file sharing, despite entertainment industry's efforts to portray it as a bastardization of music, is far from being some underground cult. I ask senior Sandra Meselebe, "what's the program everybody uses to download music?" "KaZaA," she spits back, no hesitation. "Even though I don't download a lot of music, I still hear about which programs people use," she explains. There have been dozens of other programs along the way, such as Spinfrenzy and Audiogalaxy and IMesh. But their plight, or lack thereof, has been inconsequential. Napster, the original revolutionary, and KaZaA,the new superpower, have stood out as representatives of the much attacked file sharing world. And yet most students simply ride whatever wave is most popular--now KaZaA. Perhaps this time, the underdog will prevail. |