NapsterThere is a battle going on over how we access our music. Technology has dramatically changed the days when you had to go to a record store to buy music. We can now communicate with millions of music lovers around the world by jumping on our computers, accessing the Internet and using a file sharing program called Napster. Many questions now arise: is this a theft from the artists or from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)? This also raises the question of how “free” the Internet should be. Where do we begin to regulate this giant beast that is the World Wide Web? This technology works to allow Internet users to share and download MP3 files directly from any computer connected to the Napster network. The software is used by downloading a client program from the Napster site and then connecting to the network via this software, which allows the sharing (upload and download) of MP3 files between all users connected to the network. Although Napster does not tolerate copyright infringement, the software has no ability to stop this, nor to pay royalties to artists whose songs are duplicated for free. Unlike similar file sharing apps (Gnutella, Freenet), Napster limits users to uploading/downloading MP3 files only. These files are compressed wave files (.wav). The advantage of MP3 files is that they are about a tenth the size of the corresponding .wav file and can be close to CD quality. For this reason, many artists, record labels, and others in the music industry are concerned about the MP3 file format and applications like Napster that make it simple to share copyrighted material. According to www.news.com, the RIAA says that Napster allows approximately seventy-four million users worldwide to steal music from the artists who created it. Yes, it's true that Napster allows millions of users to download songs for free; However, isn't that what the artist expects from his music? Don't they want their music to be heard all over the world? Above all, don't they want their music distributed for free so they don't have to pay so much money to record companies? I understand if the artist is worried about not making money from their album, especially since they spend most of their recording contract money not only to record their album, but also to