Transcript Metallica vs Napster

What was the issue?
In 2000 heavy metal band Metallica was worried that their income
was getting lower and there music was being pirated. They then found a
demo of there’s leaked online and found the source to it on a website
called Napster, which allowed users to share and download music.
Metallica hired online consulting firm NetPD to monitor the Napster
service for a weekend and found several laws violated. A lawsuit was then
filed against the website for sharing the band's copyright-protected
material for free without any band member's consent.
What was the result of the court case?
A 60,000 page document was delivered to Napster's office as
Metallica requested the users be banned from the service. In court, it
was discovered that Napster broke several laws with copyright
infringement being one of them. A settlement was reached between
Metallica and Napster when BMG offered to purchase the rights to
Napster for $94 million but Napster agreed to block users who shared
music without consent of artists. Napster stayed, but when downloading
music there’s a fee is included.
Do you agree with the outcome of the
court case?
I agree with the outcome of the court case. I believe artists deserve
all their hard earned money and it shouldn’t be taken from users online. But
on the other hand there will always be someway to find pirated music online.
It’s pretty much impossible to stop all the music that gets shared online.
Napster may have got out of hand violating several laws causing Metallica to
lose a lot of money. So what I’m saying is that there are more songs getting
shared on sites and when you pay for songs money adds up which is better
for the artists income.
How did Napster and this case effect
the music industry today?
Napster and this case affects the industry today because
now artists have to work harder to make up for these sites. More
sharing sites are developing which makes it harder for artists to
produce an equal amount of money. This means artists have to
produce more merchandise such as apparel and they have to tour
more to make more money. Music has changed since almost all of it
can be found online.