generation of today.Chaos rose when Napster provided free music to virtually everyone. The idea of free music exploded among college students. Downloading is even easier from inside a dorm room because colleges are on networking systems, which means instant Internet connection. Unlike a modem that has to connect every time we sign on the Internet, a network is always connected to the Internet and runs very fast. This networking factor destroyed the music industry’s distribution to college students. Graham states, "Who knew the freshman's creation would become so controversial that 200 universities would ban it from their computer systems…(Graham 1D)?” The rise of Napster could not be overlooked. Napsters overwhelming use not only happened among college students, “One in four American adults had downloaded music by one means or another, making the Napster issue a cultural phenomenon” (Simon 1). Since the reaction to Napster was so great the music industry soon noticed that there was no possible way of keeping track of their worldwide distribution. Songs were being downloaded ever day off Napster and there was no way for the industry to calculate and control it. Napster’s distribution is only one issue that the music industry felt threatened by. In the first year of Napster’s establishment, the RIAA lost $4.5 million dollars to Napster pirates. Napster users illegally download anywhere from 12 million to 30 million songs a day. Factors like 12 million to 30 million songs just given away in one day is very frightening to recording companies and artists who make most of their income through selling an album (Gibeaut 37). People can download music off Napster and burn them to a CD for under a dollar. People can also store around 1,000 MP3 files-copies of songs that they download from other people's computers with Napster. In a record store, all that music would have cost a lot of money...
