Word: mp3s
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...result, MP3s are an easy way for the typical Internet user to gain free access to their favorite music. Scores of Internet sites offer their visitors the opportunity to download free MP3 players, and thousands more make a wide range of current recordings available...
...growing popularity of MP3s has not gone unnoticed by the music industry. Major recording labels like Sony and Capitol are crying foul, claiming that rampant disregard for copyright laws by hundreds of Web sites which illegally post pirated tracks threatens to grossly undercut profits. Because MP3 technology is so advanced, it is fairly simple for anyone with the proper equipment to condense and make available whole CDs for free distribution. And with the advent of portable MP3 players now offered for about $200 by seven different companies, industry doomsayers are predicting the total financial ruin of music companies worldwide...
...despite current obstacles to procuring MP3s, the industry believes that improvements in technology will make the threat of rampant piracy a reality. In retaliation, they have concocted a series of lawsuits against anyone and everyone who could by some remote chance be held responsible for the trend. Targets include specific sites, MP3 manufacturers and even the engineers who originally created MP3 technology...
...People just view intellectual property differently," says Dan Lavin, research director for IV Associates, an entertainment-industry consulting firm. "Morality is what the community consensus decides is morality. And they're a tribe of cannibals out there." A typical consumer is American University freshman Jaymin Patel. "I've had MP3s for about two years now," he says. "I first learned about them from a hacker friend who told me I'd never have to buy a CD again...
Finally, I'd love to have Diamond Multimedia's Rio, a portable music player ($199) that handles MP3s, a digital format that squeezes CDs down to one-tenth their normal size in megabytes. That makes them small enough to send on the Net. But thanks to a Recording Industry Association of America lawsuit that tried to ban the players--MP3 is the format of choice for audio pirates as well as many legitimate artists--everyone wants one. Diamond says it's sold out through Christmas. But, hey, there's always next year...