0.5 Napster, grokster, and the riaa lawsuits

Chapter 6: Napster, Grokster, and the RIAA Lawsuits

The Peer-to-Peer Power Struggle

From the late 1990s to 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) brought multiple lawsuits against companies and individuals they claimed were either infringing copyright or helping others to infringe on copyright. These lawsuits led to a greater awareness of copyright issues among average Americans and college students. As they have had a lasting impact, the biggest lawsuits are described here.

• Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984)

The story of lawsuits against modern entertainment technology begins with a case in 1984 in which a television company brought suit against a maker of home videotape recorders, now known as VCRs. Universal Studios was aware that consumers could use the VCR to record commercial television programs, and believed that such recording was in violation of copyright law. They brought suit against the manufacturer, claiming it was guilty of contributory copyright infringement because they sold the means to commit infringement to the public. The Supreme Court examined the Fair Use doctrine, and decided that a device with “ substantial non-infringing uses ” should not be kept from the public because some users might use it to break the law. The Court also ruled that “time-shifting,” or recording a show in order to watch it later, was a legitimate fair use. This case was decided 5 to 4, with five judges ruling for it and four ruling against. In this book this case will be referred to as “Sony,” but in some publications it is called the “Sony Betamax” or the “Betamax” case. (Justia.com, 1)

• Napster

In 1999, a college student named Shawn Fanning created a computer program to help himself and his friends find and share music files via computers. He was frustrated with the then-currently available methods. MP3s files had flexibility and portability; each of his friends had thousands of them. All that was needed was an easy way to find and download the available music files. (Funding Universe 2005).

“Napster,” as the program came to be called, was tested and perfected by Fanning and his friends in the spring of 1999. It was instantly popular, and quickly spread outside the initial intended circle of friends. By June of ’99, Fanning established Napster as a business with his uncle, John Fanning (Funding Universe 2005).

Napster spread quickly among college students and thousands of other computer users (Funding Universe 2005). On college campuses, use was so high that some schools reported that 80% of their bandwidth use was for Napster. Soon, many schools began banning Napster from their networks so that bandwidth could be used for scholarly purposes (Ante 2000, 112-120). People enjoyed Napster not only because it provided free music, but for its easy interface and extensive variety of available music. Napster was an excellent resource for discovering and trying out new bands and musicians. Anyone who has spent money on a CD only to find it’s pretty bad knows the appeal of a service like Napster.