When you are buying a new car, you want to test drive it. When you’re investing in a home, you will obviously look at it before you fork over your money or sign any paperwork. The same goes for most other major purchases that people all over the world make - from property and vehicles to computer systems and new kitchen appliances.
While compact discs generally cost less than twenty dollars here in the United States, they are still an investment. In the course of my lifetime, I have spent several thousand dollars on compact discs alone - this is not, of course, counting the numerous cassettes that I purchased before CDs became a popular commodity in the American culture.
How many times have you purchased a full-length CD after hearing one or two songs on the radio or seeing the videos on television, only to find that those few songs were the only high points of the entire recording? Take, for example, Meredith Brooks: I loved her single, commonly referred to as ’’The B Song’’ here in Dallas(we can’t say the actual name, unfortunately, as it’s a dirty word). I bought the album, and was sorely disappointed! The rest of the recording was pure garbage! So, I wasted fifteen dollars for what amounted to ONE song! I was outraged. I was ticked off. I wanted to hurl things across my room because I GOT SCREWED!
Napster came along just a few short years ago. It was, at one point, the most popular MP3 software on the market. Users could, at NO cost, download any audio file that another user had granted them access to - file-sharing at its best. You could find rare live tracks, full-length albums, and out-of-print recordings that no record store will carry. You can download independent recording artists’ work for no charge, preview new releases from up-and-coming musicians, and share your very own music with the rest of the world. There are so many downloads on Napster(there were, anyway) - so many, of course, that the possibilities were virtually endless. I could, with Napster and similar file-trading software, find just about any song or audio clip that was ever recorded. Bootlegs, live performances, rare demo tracks, and ’’regular’’ releases were all available to me for no charge.
Most of the MP3s are illegal - WHEN KEPT ON YOUR COMPUTER FOR MORE THAN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS! It is not, according to American laws, illegal to download the newest Britney Spears single. It becomes a violation of the law when it remains on your hard drive for more than twenty-four hours. Thus, I make the point that responsible users should not be penalized because a handful of lawbreakers decide to download the music versus paying for the record.
I use file-trading software because I want to listen to more than two singles from a recording BEFORE I pay for it! If I like what I hear, I can order the record from CDNow.com, or I can walk into a local music store and find it. Generally I can even special-order rare and hard-to-find recordings and tracks, though it might cost me a bit more than ’’regular stuff.’’
So, what’s the problem with Napster and other file-trading software? As long as I am using it LEGALLY, and NOT keeping the files, there is no wrongdoing involved. Besides which, I just so happen to listen to a LOT of ’’unpopular’’ music. For example, there are NUMEROUS ’’Internet Bands’’ that ENCOURAGE surfers to download their MP3s. They simply want to make their music known to the world, and could not care less whether or not the files are downloaded, recorded to CD, et cetera. These files are perfectly legal, free for distribution, and are VERY prominent in file-trading software servers.
I believe Napster should be kept around IF ONLY BECAUSE I AND MANY OTHER USERS DOWNLOAD PERFECTLY LEGAL SOFTWARE FROM THE SOFTWARE’S SERVER.
Besides which, there are live bootlegs and out-of-print recordings that are not found in the United States. I, to date, have found ONE copy of Uriah Heep’s ’’Demons and Wizards’’ here in Texas - it was a cassette, which eventually wore out and broke. Since I have already purchased the recording, then I have the right to do as I please with it. Since the tape broke, am I not entitled to download the music contained on that recording? I believe I am - the artists received their royalties from me already. If it were a simple matter of walking into a record store and buying it off the shelf, I would probably do just that. However, each record store I have contacted insists that they can only get the imported version - at a minimum price of thirty dollars, plus a small ’’special order’’ fee. I don’t consider this outrageous, but it still pisses me off - I already bought the damned thing! It’s not MY fault the tape broke!
My verdict?
Allow MP3 file trading to continue via the Internet. Many Napster users who were recently polled indicated that they continue to purchase CDs - approximately ninety percent of the polled users said that they do, indeed, still buy records released by their favorite artists. So, the music industry is not exactly suffering because of Napster and other software servers. Rather, they are suffering because people such as myself - avid consumers of new releases as well as older recordings - are tired of being duped. Many musicians fail to maintain a consistent quality throughout their recordings, so they release the best singles and leave consumers dangling. We can either purchase the album(and discover, nine times out of ten, that the rest of the content is sorely lacking in appeal), or we can skip it entirely and, in a lot of cases, miss out on some great music.
It is not Napster that is causing the problems with copyright laws and other violations of the rules. Rather, a small percentage of users - the ones who refuse to follow the rules and, unfortunately, will find a way to break them even if software such as Napster is shut down - are to blame. So please, don’t penalize the majority for what the rest are doing.