Federal Laws

During the late 1990s and early 2000s the peer to peer network, Napster, became a common program on tens of millions of computers. This new technology allowed individuals to swap and share music and video files effortlessly between computers. Once certain musical artists witnessed new songs on Napster before they entered major circulation, lawsuits were quickly filed in hoping that federal laws would find Napster negligent in their copyright infringement.

• Technology like the peer-to-peer network Napster require specific federal laws to determine the legality of their function. Since Napster worked unlike the current technology that maintain independent peer-to-peer networks, federal laws handed down by US court determined that Napster worked in accessory to massive copyright infringement eventually causing them to shut-down services and sell off their assets.

• Napster maintained active control over parts of the file sharing system, making them culpable to federal laws that sought to dismantle this technology. The primary reason for Napster–to exchange mp3 files between computers–allowed owners to pirate illegally transferred files and create mixes and compilations without worrying about royalties or copyright. However, the federal laws were geared towards the bigger software and technology pirates allowing and facilitating this illegal transfer rather than college students swapping music files back and forth.

• After the effectual eradication of Napster, several other peer-to-peer technology-oriented sites popped up, causing further strain on federal laws that failed to address the entire nature of copyright laws over the Internet. These websites engineered new technology and ways to keep actual file transfer off their central database and off the radar of federal laws. Although Napster only existed for a brief amount of time, it changed not only federal laws on technology, but the entire way the music industry functions and distributes.

• The main artists that brought initial suit against Napster were Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre as pre-released songs and most of their entire musical recording careers were available by free download. Even though these specific suits were dismissed due to the larger suit against Napster by the respective recording companies, they gained much of the spotlight for bringing down Napster and continue to hear criticism–warranted or unwarranted–for these actions.

Napster and other peer-to-peer type networks brought a wave of new Internet technology and required a new perspective to understand the entanglement of copyright and personal freedom laws. Federal laws succeeded in defeating Napster, but once new programs adapted to these legal findings individuals again continued to swap free and at times illegal software without trepidation.