Summary Of The Controversy Of Napster
Napster Controversy
Executive Summary
This case takes a look at the Napster company which was launched in 1999 by freshman Shawn Fanning. Napster was later shut down in 2001 due to violations of copyright laws. The Napster;s offerings was later condemned By RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), a trade group representing the world’s biggest record labels, Universal music, Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI group and Bertelsmann AG.This case study gives a detailed analysis of the creation of Napster and explains why, revolutionary at that point of time, Napster changed the face of the entertainment industry forever.
Predicaments : * Napster a web service provider allows free download of music for its users through internet …show more content…
as backbone source . * This created revenue loss to the RIAA (recording industry association of America ) . * so it filed a suet against Napster for providing copy write music's for free to their users .
* due to internet traffic, providing peer to peer service through internet was a problem . * Its popularity among the music lovers including college students made to use Napster even in colleges which forced the colleges to block this site in colleges . * High profile media campaigns were set against Napster for its activities . * Napster’s compensation package of $1 billion was not accepted by the RIAA. * Napster entered into an agreement with German media and Bertelsmann(RIAA) who gave a loan of $60 million – created chaos that Napster was sold to RIAA. * As a part of competition another website filed a case against Napster for copyright infringement and unfair competition . * when Napster stopped its service providing , more number of same technology based service providers came into existence . * so competition in the global market increased tremendously . * finally it was forced to pay $26 million and $ 10 million to end the ethical problems and to the harry fox license agency for copyright respectively . * It also agrees to give one -third of its revenue to the content owners
.
Situation Analysis-
Arguments Involved Napster RIAA 1. To gain access to Overpriced 1. Customers can be free products in recording against buying industry freely by customer.
2. Not worthy as diamonds 2. Would it be ethically right to to steal diamonds? 3. Artists would be thrilled that 3.Not all artists would agree someone liked their work. until they are paid for their creation.
Other aarguments * Napster -Argued that The file sharing system was not illegal. US Supeme Court decision has not only legitimised Sony Corp’s Betamax VCR but also provided legal groundwork for future clashes and Copyright Law. Promotion of new artists who do not have recording contracts with RIAA. * RIAA – strict regulations on distribution and production of music. RIAA held that a person had to pay for downloading a file.
Ethical issues involved * Intellectual Property Rights, Business Ethics.
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs. * Professional: stealing perspective on behalf of artists * Unfair: to artists and music industry, artists lose recognition * Economic: artists loose monetary compensation, * music companies loose business * Common good perspective: violated laws of society * Negative motivation to honest music buyers (CDs,tapes etc) * Personal gain for users: free music * Unclear vision: usually not seen as stealing * Napster being platform for other such software: * increase in competition, financial loss, discouraging * Honor property rights including copyrights and patent. * Code of ethics breached
-Give proper credit for intellectual property
- Know and respect existing laws pertaining to
-professional work
Comparison with that of Sony Corp’s VCR * It is Comparable * Sony Corp VCR –issue pirated copies of movies. US Supeme Court decision has not only legitimised Sony Corp’s Betamax VCR but also provided legal groundwork for future clashes and Copyright Law. * Unfair to Napster – free file sharing technology
Strategy Adopted by Napster- * Paid Version of Napster * Alliance with BertlesMann Napster's recent alliance with Bertelsmann may be the first step towards future cooperation. Bertelsmann is betting on Napster's future by loaning 50 million to aid the company in developing a system that compensates artists, songwriters, publishers and music labels.
Popularity of Napster with paid version * Alliance with Bertlemann – 1st step towards future cooperation. * benefits of a high-quality streaming music service — all for one low price * For as little as $5 per month-. For as little as $5 per month, get five unrestricted MP3 downloads and unlimited access to Napster’s on-demand music streaming service * Napster users shared space, but this is carefully screened to prevent piracy * Additional features like In addition to the new value, the latest version of Napster includes a new download manager that automatically saves downloaded MP3s to iTunes or Windows Media Player. And the new personalized My Page gives you a personalized digest of the music you’ve listened to, and helps you discover music by highlighting new music tailored for you each Tuesday.
Steps taken by company to lure back subscribers * Free trial * Offer customers three exciting packages Napster currently offers its customers three packages, ‘Napster To Go’ for £14.95 a month, Napster Membership for £9.95 and Napster lite. ‘Napster To Go’ and Napster Membership allows customers to download as much music as they like to their Computer. ‘Napster To Go’ also allows music to be downloaded via special terminals in high street stores and internet ready televisions direct to MP3 players. Napster Lite is Napster’s basic free package. It allows customers to pay for music on a per song basis at 79p. Customers can choose what they want by listening to 30 second segments of the content before they commit to purchasing. Napster lite also allows its users to access music stored on other Napster users shared space, but this is carefully screened to prevent piracy * Mobile access
- Team 2
Ranjith
Vijay Santosh Srinivasan M Sanita
Executive Summary
This case takes a look at the Napster company which was launched in 1999 by freshman Shawn Fanning. Napster was later shut down in 2001 due to violations of copyright laws. The Napster;s offerings was later condemned By RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), a trade group representing the world’s biggest record labels, Universal music, Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI group and Bertelsmann AG.This case study gives a detailed analysis of the creation of Napster and explains why, revolutionary at that point of time, Napster changed the face of the entertainment industry forever.
Predicaments : * Napster a web service provider allows free download of music for its users through internet …show more content…
as backbone source . * This created revenue loss to the RIAA (recording industry association of America ) . * so it filed a suet against Napster for providing copy write music's for free to their users .
* due to internet traffic, providing peer to peer service through internet was a problem . * Its popularity among the music lovers including college students made to use Napster even in colleges which forced the colleges to block this site in colleges . * High profile media campaigns were set against Napster for its activities . * Napster’s compensation package of $1 billion was not accepted by the RIAA. * Napster entered into an agreement with German media and Bertelsmann(RIAA) who gave a loan of $60 million – created chaos that Napster was sold to RIAA. * As a part of competition another website filed a case against Napster for copyright infringement and unfair competition . * when Napster stopped its service providing , more number of same technology based service providers came into existence . * so competition in the global market increased tremendously . * finally it was forced to pay $26 million and $ 10 million to end the ethical problems and to the harry fox license agency for copyright respectively . * It also agrees to give one -third of its revenue to the content owners
.
Situation Analysis-
Arguments Involved Napster RIAA 1. To gain access to Overpriced 1. Customers can be free products in recording against buying industry freely by customer.
2. Not worthy as diamonds 2. Would it be ethically right to to steal diamonds? 3. Artists would be thrilled that 3.Not all artists would agree someone liked their work. until they are paid for their creation.
Other aarguments * Napster -Argued that The file sharing system was not illegal. US Supeme Court decision has not only legitimised Sony Corp’s Betamax VCR but also provided legal groundwork for future clashes and Copyright Law. Promotion of new artists who do not have recording contracts with RIAA. * RIAA – strict regulations on distribution and production of music. RIAA held that a person had to pay for downloading a file.
Ethical issues involved * Intellectual Property Rights, Business Ethics.
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs. * Professional: stealing perspective on behalf of artists * Unfair: to artists and music industry, artists lose recognition * Economic: artists loose monetary compensation, * music companies loose business * Common good perspective: violated laws of society * Negative motivation to honest music buyers (CDs,tapes etc) * Personal gain for users: free music * Unclear vision: usually not seen as stealing * Napster being platform for other such software: * increase in competition, financial loss, discouraging * Honor property rights including copyrights and patent. * Code of ethics breached
-Give proper credit for intellectual property
- Know and respect existing laws pertaining to
-professional work
Comparison with that of Sony Corp’s VCR * It is Comparable * Sony Corp VCR –issue pirated copies of movies. US Supeme Court decision has not only legitimised Sony Corp’s Betamax VCR but also provided legal groundwork for future clashes and Copyright Law. * Unfair to Napster – free file sharing technology
Strategy Adopted by Napster- * Paid Version of Napster * Alliance with BertlesMann Napster's recent alliance with Bertelsmann may be the first step towards future cooperation. Bertelsmann is betting on Napster's future by loaning 50 million to aid the company in developing a system that compensates artists, songwriters, publishers and music labels.
Popularity of Napster with paid version * Alliance with Bertlemann – 1st step towards future cooperation. * benefits of a high-quality streaming music service — all for one low price * For as little as $5 per month-. For as little as $5 per month, get five unrestricted MP3 downloads and unlimited access to Napster’s on-demand music streaming service * Napster users shared space, but this is carefully screened to prevent piracy * Additional features like In addition to the new value, the latest version of Napster includes a new download manager that automatically saves downloaded MP3s to iTunes or Windows Media Player. And the new personalized My Page gives you a personalized digest of the music you’ve listened to, and helps you discover music by highlighting new music tailored for you each Tuesday.
Steps taken by company to lure back subscribers * Free trial * Offer customers three exciting packages Napster currently offers its customers three packages, ‘Napster To Go’ for £14.95 a month, Napster Membership for £9.95 and Napster lite. ‘Napster To Go’ and Napster Membership allows customers to download as much music as they like to their Computer. ‘Napster To Go’ also allows music to be downloaded via special terminals in high street stores and internet ready televisions direct to MP3 players. Napster Lite is Napster’s basic free package. It allows customers to pay for music on a per song basis at 79p. Customers can choose what they want by listening to 30 second segments of the content before they commit to purchasing. Napster lite also allows its users to access music stored on other Napster users shared space, but this is carefully screened to prevent piracy * Mobile access
- Team 2
Ranjith
Vijay Santosh Srinivasan M Sanita