“The music industry is already disturbed about how easy it
is to copy music via the Internet without paying for it.”
“But in recent months Napster has greatly magnified the
threat. Acting like a music search engine, the software makes
it easier to find and copy a far wider array of music. It also
makes it easier for individuals to offer their own music
collections to others.”
“Napster is by no means just a college fad. Every day, about a
million otherwise law-abiding adult citizens are demonstrating no
compunction about using the service to get free what they would
have to pay for in a record store.”
“For several years, a technology known as MP3 has allowed
computer users to compress music into files that are close to CD
quality yet small enough to travel quickly over the Internet. But
there has not been an easy way to find such music and then make it
available to others.”
“Napster essentially gives everyone who uses the software access
to all the MP3 files on one another’s computers that they are
willing to share.”
“If today’s teenagers are growing up with the perception that
music is something that can be had free, the industry fears,
copyright laws will become effectively unenforceable.”
“‘There’s an incredible disconnect out there between what is
normal behavior in the physical world versus the online world,’ Mr.
Sherman said.”
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