OPPapers.com Essay Index >> Miscellaneous >> Napster: Information Superhighway Robbery?
We have many free term papers and essays on Napster: Information Superhighway Robbery?. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
Napster: Information Superhighway Robbery? Sean Fanning had no idea of the
amount of turmoil that the creation of Napster would cause. ...
Submitted by oppapers on June 9, 2001
Category: Miscellaneous
Words: 3684 | Pages: 15
Views: 1447
Popularity Rank: 2,702
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
Sean Fanning had no idea of the amount of turmoil that the creation of Napster would cause. Full-length songs were being exchanged in a matter of minutes, and neither the artists nor the record companies were seeing a cent of it. With the widespread popularity of Internet file sharing the music population was divided. People either saw the program as a Godsend that would save them from wallet gouging CD prices or a new-aged form of robbery. From the money-hungry record company executive to the eleven year-old kid waiting forty minutes to download the latest BB Mac hit, it seems that almost everyone has a stance on Napster. The difficulty lies in appeasing all parties affected by the Internet file sharing. Though the record companies and others interested in the financial aspect of music are reluctant to adapt, they will inevitably be forced to do so by the evolution of technology.
The word "Napster" originated as creator Sean Fanning's grade school nickname. It was a remark made in regard to Fanning's hairstyle and was meant to jilt his focus on the basketball game at hand. Since then "Napster" had been his nickname. When Fanning's Internet file sharing program was launched in 1998 it inherited the title.
Fanning was enrolled at Northeastern University and was majoring in computer science when he created the program. He sought a challenge beyond his entry-level classes. Thus came the idea for Napster. Fanning's roommate had been using Internet technology quite frequently to download and play MP3s (music files). The problem was that the sites he was using were unreliable and often out of date. After surveying several Internet users via chat rooms Fanning had collected enough information to begin work on his masterpiece. His idea was to have a program that searched for other user's on the "net" that possessed MP3 files. It would ask the user which files they wished to share with others and then would make those available for...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!