Copyright Laws
During the last couple years of the 1990s, a new computer program became available for download for free. This new program was called Napster. It was one of a kind and quickly became popular. The purpose of the program was to provide users with free music. The concept was that users would upload music onto the program and then share their music. Other users could then download your music and vise versa. Eventually, millions of users were able to all share their music collection with each other. The music was in mp3 format which is simple to download and play from almost any media players. It was not long until professional musicians became aware of this program and started asking questions regarding federal copyright law. According to federal copyright laws, one cannot make copies of a band’s CD and sell it without the band’s permission. Napster was promoting free music trading which in any other format, would break federal copyright law. However, trading music on the internet was a new concept in 2000 when the first legal challenge came about, so not everyone was sure whether or not Napster broke any federal copyright laws.
• In 2000, heavy metal band Metallica became aware that one of their unreleased demos was available for free download on the Napster program. Soon after, rapper Dr. Dre also realized that some of his material was on Napster as well. Both Metallica and Dr. Dre used the same law firm and sent official requests to remove the material from the program, but Napster refused and legal actions were taken.
• In the same year, pop singer Madonna was involved in talks with Napster representatives in order to produce some sort of partnership between the two parties. However, she later realized that her unreleased single had been leaked on Napster. Her record company also took legal action as they felt that Napster had broken federal copyright laws.
Several record companies took legal actions against Napster in 2000. These companies felt that federal copyright law was not being forced and the matter needed to be dealt with. At this point there were few other examples of issues involving federal copyright law and the internet. Furthermore, there were no other examples of federal copyright law and music on the internet. After months of legal hearings, Napster was required by the courts to supervise what all users were doing and make sure that no federal copyright laws were broken. Napster could not honor that demand and was forced to terminate the program during the summer of 2001. The next year they were forced to declare bankruptcy. Today there are many programs that provide the same exact or similar service. If Napster was breaking federal copyright laws, then it could be assumed that programs like Limewire are breaking federal copyright laws as well