The French never thought of a revolution like
this....
  
Written: June 27/2000
Written by: Leah Demaree
Stealing or sharing? Is mp3 technology simply an easy way to rip off artists, or is it a
new technology that's revolutionizing the way the music industry will be run? In short, it
has the capacity to be both.
Technology is one of those things that's like a fire in a forest: It's very hard, if not
impossible, to stop. Computer technology has gradually become more sophisticated, and with
the Internet, the average person now has no qualms about delving into "computer
geek" territory, for better or for worse. Everyone and their grandmother has an email
address (including my grandmother). The debate over mp3s has become so huge and heated,
which is due in no small part to the fact that mp3s are everywhere. Finding just about any
song you want, or in some cases any album you want, is not hard at all if you're willing
to contend with the fact that mp3s can't be played anywhere but on a computer, at least
not until portable mp3 players become more common. But wait a second...CD burners and
their companion software already eliminate the formatting barrier between regular CDs and
mp3s. What is the music industry to do?
We already know what the industry has tried to do so far: Wave the flag of
copyright laws and ownership of "art" and "ideas." But the question,
"What is the music industry to do?" is a much tougher question than it seems.
Consider that mp3 just happens to be one of the star technologies for not just Internet
experts but newbies as well. Once obscure news for Internet junkies (the mp3 format has
only been around for maybe 4 years), mp3s quickly caught on and are now center stage in
just about every newscast. I guess once someone loses and/or gains money, one little file
format makes a lot of ink.
Mp3s seem to have no drawbacks, and with CD burner technology becoming
more affordable, mp3s perhaps could be unstoppable.
But what is the real issue here? Money is certainly the most obvious issue; however, with
that the issue of "legal vs illegal" crops up.
I'm not a lawyer; it's not really my place to argue about whether Napster is violating
copyrights or not. The courts decide those issues. Besides, I don't even use Napster (So
Metallica, leave me alone). However, I never kidded myself about what I was up to when I
taped off my friends CDs, either. Of course the issue isn't stealing someone's ideas, the
issue is that the industry isn't getting the maximum amount of profit from its product. My
downloading doesn't transfer any dollars into their bank accounts. My definition of
sharing does not include ripping tracks from CDs and giving them away on the Internet.
Sorry, but even linguistic acrobatics to suit the taste of Johnny Cochran can't get around
the fact that an mp3 sounds like a CD without the obvious drawback: the price tag. I don't
recall asking Columbia if I could "share" some of its music with the rest of the
world....
Next page: Who is the enemy?
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