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Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

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has been greatly concerned with the proliferation <strong>of</strong> mp3formatted music files as this has (they say) the potential toundermine the whole system <strong>of</strong> copyright in popular music. Thetechnology is such that a song can be “ripped” <strong>of</strong>f a CD, uploadedto the Internet for copying, distribution, consumption andpotentially downloading or “burning” onto a compact disc.In many instances, the act <strong>of</strong> copying is obvious and arguablya breach <strong>of</strong> copyright. However, lawsuits so far have not beenagainst the end consumer for direct copyright infringement butagainst the machine or technology manufacturers or developersfor indirectly breaching copyright through facilitatinginfringement. Napster involved suits by the recording industryagainst the company that developed and distributed s<strong>of</strong>tware thatenabled people to reference and access mp3 files available via theInternet. A “live” index created and centrally stored at Napsterallowed online users to share mp3 files/songs. For instance, if Iwant to listen to a song called “Red River,” I would use myNapster s<strong>of</strong>tware to access a list <strong>of</strong> people currently online fromthe Napster central server who are registered as having a copy <strong>of</strong>the song; then, I would request the file directly from the personwho has it stored on their hard drive. The file is not sent to me byNapster, but by the party who is registered as having a copy. Thisis sometimes referred to as peer-to-peer file sharing.302 Theimportant point is that Napster merely facilitates the delivery <strong>of</strong>the copied song, it does not do any copying itself. Should they beliable for copyright infringement? Does the digital property <strong>of</strong> thecopyright owner control this situation?In 1984, the United States Supreme Court, analogizing thefile “smaller” by limiting the audio bandwidth) now allow digital audio files tobe transferred more quickly and stored more efficiently. MPEG-1 AudioLayer 3 (commonly known as “MP3”) is the most popular digital audiocompression algorithm in use on the Internet, and the compression itprovides makes an audio file “smaller “ by a factor <strong>of</strong> twelve to one withoutsignificantly reducing sound quality. MP3’s popularity is due in large part tothe fact that it is a standard, non-proprietary compression algorithm freelyavailable for use by anyone, unlike various proprietary (and copyright-secure)competitor algorithms. Coupled with the use <strong>of</strong> cable modems, compressionalgorithms like MP3 may soon allow an hour <strong>of</strong> music to be downloaded fromthe Internet to a personal computer in just a few minutes.Id.302. See Andrew Oram, Peer to Peer: Harnessing the Power <strong>of</strong> DisruptiveTechnologies (2001).

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