Eckert/1

Travis Eckert

Wentworth, Lindsay

English 101; 4th period

3 April 2007

Background Story

I knew about file-sharing ever since Napster. My dad used it. This was of course before it was considered illegal. Though once it got controversy and was considered “illegal”, my dad stopped using it. Now Napster is a legal service, but there have since been numerous programs that do the same thing. They use peer-to-peer (p2p) file-transfer and BitTorrent software. The more famous for p2p software is Limewire, at least its what I use. There are numerous clients for BitTorrent, one of the more well known ones is µTorrent , which I use every once in a while. There are some legal ways to use these, and completely legal clients, but it’s easily used “illegally”. Personally, if it were not for this technology, I could only get one or two albums a year. I would also be forced to watch MTV to get my music fix, because it would be the only source for me, but it’s usually too mainstream. MTV also rarely plays music, only during low watched periods, and nowadays it seems Nickelodeon plays more music. So file-sharing allows me to be more of a fan. I could also tell others about the band, and they might buy the album, and I might go to a concert. Also, it is almost always the already rich and successful artists that get stolen from. They can live without their royalties, and record labels have enough money. Sales have mostly decreased due to a lack in interest. I am studying file-sharing music to find out why file-sharing music is illegal in order to understand why file-sharing music is so popular and why the RIAA is going about it the way they are.