Last week Napster was nearly shut down by the recording industry and record companies. We’re lucky. If these giant monopolies succeed in shutting down Napster, the Microsoft anti-trust case won’t be able to hold water anymore.For years, consumers have been at the beck and call of the recording industry. It holds control over the distribution of music, period. Music fans could either buy whatever was used to distribute music at that time (records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs) or listen to the radio. Napster rises and challenges this status quo, threatening a giant, slow-moving sloth in the recording industry. Rather than adapt to change, the Recording Industry Association of America is trying to stamp out achievements and advancements in technology.The advent of person-to-person file sharing came in a college dorm. Napster continued to develop, growing rapidly into the fastest-growing company in the Internet’s short history. While downloading music files may not have been the original intention of those who first created the Internet, free access to information was.Metallica and the association complain that Napster allows for easy piracy of copyrighted music. It may, but so did dual-cassette tape recorders. The difference between Napster and those tape recorders is that MP3s are better quality than a cassette tape and they continue to be after copies are made of them. The recording industry recognizes this and has decided to pursue legal action. Not improve itself and offer the same services, but try to halt the advancement of technology.The recording industry has so many options available to it. It could examine creating the next generation of MP3s, producing a higher quality music file that takes less space. It could work with Napster to find ways for artists to be compensated for files of their music that are downloaded. The industry could attempt to set up competition for Napster by charging a small fee and offering a broader music library than Napster can offer, except for peak hours. The industry decided to drag its feet and complain instead, leaving it even more in the hole.This is not the first time that the entertainment industry has tried to slow or stop technology. Hearings were held in the past over VCRs and their ability to tape shows broadcast on television. The decision set a precedent then that must be upheld now, that Napster should be allowed to continue. People continued to buy videos in stores as long as they were fairly priced and of better quality. The recording industry must now accept this challenge and price its merchandise fairly, offer better quality products or offer special reasons to buy CDs rather than simply download songs.If the recording industry decides not to step up to bat and continues to take the easy route – trying to shut down Napster – it will still find itself the loser thanks to other file-sharing programs such as Gnutella.Gnutella operates on a different principle. It leaves no central server to be shut down by the judicial branch of government. Instead, people download information directly off other computers. With no central system to shut down, the recording industry won’t have anyone to take to court.Other services are beginning to take a firm hold of people, promising that if the RIAA succeeds in its mission, files will still be downloaded for free without ways of tracking them. Napster is the RIAA’s best option. The two must learn to appreciate each other before they are both passed in the road of progress.
Brian Clark is a junior journalism major and the Lantern opinion editor. He believes that if the dorms are overcrowded again this year President Kirwan should put up some students in his new presidential mansion. He can be reached at [email protected].