How Napster Changed the World
After reading the a
rticle by Don Dodge, I have come to the conclusion that Napster did change the world. Not all were changed for the better, but there is a hefty population of those that benefited from this. Those who benefited from this are the ones who are now downloading songs and movies illegally through the underground sharing programs. Those who didn't are obviously the RIAA and the record companies that did not believe Napster when they explained the damage the p2p programs can do. The Napster program opened opportunities and ideas to others, that eventually expanded off this idea, which created both advantages and disadvantages to others.
Napster was the pioneer of download sharing programs. It was first created to allow others to share music and videos to other peers and users. Eventually, it branched off to be bigger than expected, and there were over 50 million loyal users to Napster. They were all sharing new music files and such to other users, and this created some problems with artists. Music artists such as Metallica and Dr. Dre became angered with Napster, both with different reasons. Metallica was furious because of a single off their new album that was released through Napster and eventually through radio, before the actual release date. Dr. Dre had a similar problem and wrote to them asking to take off his music, and was denied. They both filed lawsuits against Napster for the pirating songs that had been circulating Napster. This was the start to the major problems for Napster. After the lawsuit, Napster encountered something bigger than annoyed artists. RAII sued Napster on behalf of all record companies. They felt that Napster was conflicting with the sales that the record companies were obtaining. Napster had lost it's case, but won a "stay" for a limited time. Although they were being sued because of obvious reasons, many felt that Napster actually helped sales. An example of this would be with Radiohead, "Kid A". Their CD's have never made it onto the top 100 Billboard's list but after a few of their singles had gotten on Napster and over 1 million had downloaded their songs, at the realease of their CD, it had won the number one spot on the BillBoard's list. Many believe that this was caused by Napster and actually stimulated CD sales! Still, Napster was not able to defend themselves from this. Napster tried one last time to make a deal with the labels. There was a new underground p2p sharing program called "Gnutella". There was no central server so there was no one to really sue. It had a few people on it but Napster had much more. The deal was that the labels and Napster could work together to put down "Gnutella" since Napster had so much loyal users. The decision made by the labels was the worst decision they could have made. They did not believe Napster and refused their deal and successfully shut down Napster. Now there loads of p2p programs out there and is what most people do to get their songs. The RIAA lost millions in potential revenue all because of the wrong decision.
Napster was bought by Roxio and they changed their name to Napster and now sell online music as Napster first planned to do.
After reading the a
rticle by Don Dodge, I have come to the conclusion that Napster did change the world. Not all were changed for the better, but there is a hefty population of those that benefited from this. Those who benefited from this are the ones who are now downloading songs and movies illegally through the underground sharing programs. Those who didn't are obviously the RIAA and the record companies that did not believe Napster when they explained the damage the p2p programs can do. The Napster program opened opportunities and ideas to others, that eventually expanded off this idea, which created both advantages and disadvantages to others.Napster was the pioneer of download sharing programs. It was first created to allow others to share music and videos to other peers and users. Eventually, it branched off to be bigger than expected, and there were over 50 million loyal users to Napster. They were all sharing new music files and such to other users, and this created some problems with artists. Music artists such as Metallica and Dr. Dre became angered with Napster, both with different reasons. Metallica was furious because of a single off their new album that was released through Napster and eventually through radio, before the actual release date. Dr. Dre had a similar problem and wrote to them asking to take off his music, and was denied. They both filed lawsuits against Napster for the pirating songs that had been circulating Napster. This was the start to the major problems for Napster. After the lawsuit, Napster encountered something bigger than annoyed artists. RAII sued Napster on behalf of all record companies. They felt that Napster was conflicting with the sales that the record companies were obtaining. Napster had lost it's case, but won a "stay" for a limited time. Although they were being sued because of obvious reasons, many felt that Napster actually helped sales. An example of this would be with Radiohead, "Kid A". Their CD's have never made it onto the top 100 Billboard's list but after a few of their singles had gotten on Napster and over 1 million had downloaded their songs, at the realease of their CD, it had won the number one spot on the BillBoard's list. Many believe that this was caused by Napster and actually stimulated CD sales! Still, Napster was not able to defend themselves from this. Napster tried one last time to make a deal with the labels. There was a new underground p2p sharing program called "Gnutella". There was no central server so there was no one to really sue. It had a few people on it but Napster had much more. The deal was that the labels and Napster could work together to put down "Gnutella" since Napster had so much loyal users. The decision made by the labels was the worst decision they could have made. They did not believe Napster and refused their deal and successfully shut down Napster. Now there loads of p2p programs out there and is what most people do to get their songs. The RIAA lost millions in potential revenue all because of the wrong decision.
Napster was bought by Roxio and they changed their name to Napster and now sell online music as Napster first planned to do.
posted by m&m's; at 6:43 AM
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