week of October 20, Hank Barry (chief executive officer) of Napster suggested a monthly flat rate payment of $4.95 US/month ($7.45 CND) to all members of the Napsters community. Major recording companies such as EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner have all said they will continue with their lawsuit for copyright infringement. Artists such as Dr. Dre, a well-established gangster rapper of the hip-hop world has drawn offence from Napster. In a recent music awards show Shawn Fanning presented himself wearing a Metallica t-shirt. This did not sit well with the band as cameras zoomed in to realize the expression on their faces. This whole ordeal has resulted into a chief issue. Lawsuits are being brought forth due to copyright violations. Both sides have taken this matter to court. On November 14, 2000 judge Jed Rakof of the US District Court awarded Universal (record company) up to $250 million US of financial penalties caused by the web site called “MP3.Com”. Napster’s defense was to seek immunity under the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, which states the strong protection against non-commercial copying of digital and analog music recordings. This is one of many problems occurring in the world of copyright infringement. It happens everyday with authors, the music industry, students and so on using someone else’s work and claiming it as their own. The whole issue has resulted in a waste of people’s time, effort and money. What Napster has done was wrong. Stealing music that belongs to other record companies and exploiting these files through the Internet for users to download for free. There is a moral conduct to be met and Naspter has not. It is wrong on to deprive someone credit of their work, and use it to your own advantage....
