Digital Music

The 1990s were revolutionary when it came to computer technology; the World Wide Web was developed, electronic mail was perfected; computers had better memory, they became more compact, faster to process information. Along with all that, Internet connection speed was upgraded rapidly: from the old 28.8K modems to the faster 56K modems; modems were then considered slow in comparison with ISDN (128K) connection which involved satellite dial-up; and then, nowadays, we have broadband connections (T1, T3, Cable, ADSL) which are super fast. Along with all these advancements, people had the urge to exchange information, use information and help others by posting information. That information could be categorized into many different areas: texts, pictures, messages and music.

Music is the big one these days because it has created a lot of controversy between different sides of the issue. On one hand, record companies are upset because their revenues are plummeting; on the other hand the consumer feels that since hey can acquire free music and software for free, they should stop paying ridiculous amounts of money. (You should read Zaqloub Said's essay on the music industry's response to the allegedly illegal file sharing software, Napster: The Industry Response to File Sharing.

Napster was the first file-sharing software created by a high school student in 1999. The way Napster works is simple; the client (the internet user who is interested in downloading music) downloads music from a server or a database that contains all the music. Once the program is downloaded, navigation is easy. The user clicks on the search tab and then types in his desired song or types the artist's name; the results that come back are files in the main server and the names of those who own them. All the music files are in mp3 format. MP3 is an abbreviation for MPEG-1, Layer 3 Audio. This is a digital sound encoding and compression process that was developed by the Fraunhofer Institut fur Integrierte Schaltungen and THOMSON Multimedia. The MP3 encoding process is a very efficient encoding method which relatively recently has been able to be used in real time due to the sharp increase in available processor power in home PCs. MP3 is an international standard and is well suited for the transfer of high quality audio files internet¹.

The big problem with Napster is that it violates copyright laws. Napster's defense is that the files available belong to people that keep those files on their own computers, and therefore Napster is not responsible. But it is a fact that thousands of people are making thousands of copies of copyrighted songs, and neither the record companies nor the artists get any money in return for those copies. That defines copyright violation, and that is reason why Napster was sued.²

When Shawn Fanning created Napster, he wanted three things: a search engine that is dedicated to finding MP3 files only, the ability to trade (share) MP3 files directly, without having to use a centralized server for storage and Internet Relay Chat (IRC): a way to find and chat with other MP3 users while online. It took him several months to write the codes and when he was done, he posted it online for people to download. The program was an instant success. Napster (Napster was Fanning's nickname in high school, because of his hair) worked in a unique way; instead of storing the songs on a central computer, the songs are available on users' machines. This is called peer-to-peer sharing, or P2P. When you want to download a song using Napster, you are downloading it from another person's machine. Napster still had a central index server. That server acted as an intermediary between clients by storing the client's name, number and files. That is why the court was able to pull the plug on the program.

Kazaa is the natural and logical successor of Napster. Napster got its plug pulled ultimately because it was not truly distributed. It maintained a centralized file database with a searchable index, and it was this database that became the legal target. Kazaa uses 'super nodes' - members of the network with powerful high bandwidth systems who offer to host information about the network on a temporary basis. The weak link in Kazaa is the user's connection to the Internet, his or her IP address. This means that the Kazaa user can, in theory, be traced. In fact, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) was able to arrest and convict a few people of 'internet piracy' and copyright violations.³ Given that Kazaa does not have a centralized database and Kazaa's clients act as servers besides downloading music, they cannot be stopped. Thus, the RIAA now holds the users to be liable for the illegal materials on their computers.

In conclusion, Kazaa and Napster worked in very similar manners with slight differences. Napster was terminated because all the eggs were in one basket so to speak; Kazaa on the other hand is a big network of clients that act as databases and can share files very easily. We have to keep in mind that Kazaa is not the only available program that operates these days. There are hundreds of different programs that allow P2P networking and file sharing.