Get in line and pay your "share."

Napster, Kazaa , iTunes
and the rest.




File sharing, music sharing, movie sharing, and black-market
DVDs : Bad.

Purchasing music, software, and movies, and paying
taxes on the sale : Good.

The Associated Press from Los Angeles reported, "Recording companies filed copyright infringement
lawsuits against 754 computer users Thursday, the latest round of legal
action in the industry's effort to squelch unauthorized swapping of music
online."

As in previous cases, the new lawsuits were filed against "John Doe"
defendants - identified only by their numeric Internet protocol
addresses. Music company lawyers must obtain the identity of defendants by
issuing subpoenas to Internet access providers.

In all, recording companies have sued 7,704 computer users since
September 2003. To date, 1,475 defendants have settled their cases out of
court, the Recording Industry Association of America. Settlements in previous cases have averaged $3,000 each.

Those of us who have been using internet music sharing since its inception have seen many providers come and go. My favorite was Audiogalaxy.com; it had a vast selection of music that I was able to peruse and download. Then after about a year of using this service, Audiogalaxy began limiting what songs and artists were able to be downloaded (i.e.: the Beatles, Eric Clapton) At that time few songs were restricted.. That led the way for user to sign up for a “Gold membership” that would allow access to the collection, albeit what they had the rights to at that point.

Longing for a better selection without the membership, I jumped to Kazaa. There I found all the music and videos that any “digital file junkie” could hope for. Alas, again, after about a year or so of use, certain artists had a gold icon next to their files and I knew it was happening again; we were headed towards “membership” based services. Translation? Pay service.

From Kazaa I quietly backed out of the file sharing arena and became an observer of things to come. “ Things” like artists fighting for copyright laws to be enforced and individual users being sued for using their home computers for sharing of digital content. Most of these cases involved people who weren't even old enough to purchase alcohol; some weren’t old enough to have a drivers license.

The popularity of “sharing” is the biggest problem. The RIAA isn't looking to sue you for making a copy of a CD or DVD for a friend every once in a while. They are when 100,00 of your online “friends” ask for a copy. Then it becomes an issue for the legal team. The volume and popularity is the source of major angst.
No one wants to miss out on a lucrative market, so Napster, a once free file sharing outfit, has teamed up with major universities. Mark Mulligan, senior analyst with Jupiter Research in London, said that Napster's deal with Penn State University was a smart marketing plan. "The challenge is to try and turn around the established habit of young music fans and convert them into 'legitimate' fee-paying music users. They are definitely the hardest market to turn around," he said. By providing a compelling free service to students coupled with a small fee, Napster can educate young music users on the value of paying for music and impress upon them the notion that cost goes with quality, Mulligan said. "This is a very welcome step in the right direction. All digital music services need to cater to young users who don't have high levels of disposable income now." The Penn State agreement will also provide Napster with the bonus of establishing the brand at an early age, Mulligan said.
There is still plenty of “sharing” going on for free. However, I haven’t found any movies or cds that are worth $3.00 to watch or listen to, have you?