Brief about MP3, intenet and Music Downloads

 

Downloading music from the Internet became possible during the 1990s. By the end of the decade Internet users could download music using a variety of software programs available free of charge on the World Wide Web. Many of these programs, such as MP3 (short for Motion Picture Experts Group 1, Audio Layer 3), also made it easy for a user to copy songs from an album on compact disc to a computer’s hard drive. The copied song could then be linked to a Web page, enabling people around the world to make illegal copies. Because the copies are digital, each is of exactly the same quality and fidelity as the original, unlike traditional analogue copies made with cassette tapes. Legal and illegal copies could be played back on home computers or downloaded to portable MP3 playback devices. The maker of one popular player, WinAmp, claims that 15 million copies of its software have been downloaded.

Sales of personal music players were bound up in the battle for supremacy in online music purchases. Apple Computer, Inc., found itself embroiled in a dispute with RealNetworks, Inc., which decided to provide consumers with software for converting downloadable songs from a RealNetworks music service into a format that could be played on Apple's highly successful iPod. The move followed an unsuccessful effort by RealNetworks to license the iPod music format. The apparent motive was to lure customers away from Apple's iTunes online music service, since the iPod could play music only in a format used by iTunes or in the widely available MP3 format. RealNetworks insisted that it was within its rights, but Apple accused the firm of unethical behaviour.

The battle underscored the growing competition in the online music market, which some analysts estimated would generate $270 million in sales in 2004, more than double 2003 sales. In April Apple said its iTunes service had sold more than 70 million songs at 99 cents each during its first year, although that fell somewhat short of the 100 million songs the company had projected it would sell in that period. It surpassed the 100-million-song mark three months later. Apple faced a growing field of online music competitors, including Microsoft's MSN Music, RealNetwork's Rhapsody, Yahoo!'s Musicmatch, Roxio's Napster, and Sony's Connect. Yahoo!, a late entry to the market, had paid $160 million for the Musicmatch online music business.

Some surveys showed that more than 20 million people in the U.S. continued to download free music from the Internet in apparent violation of copyright laws. The music industry's trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America, continued to file copyright-infringement lawsuits against consumers whose computers were found to be sharing copyrighted music. The music was typically downloaded by means of online file-sharing services by which a computer user essentially opened a window into his or her computer and allowed other participants in the service to copy the music files. Although the participants could use false names, their computers could be identified by their IP addresses, which in turn could be traced to individual file sharers through their Internet service providers.

One major effort of the music and motion picture industries had been to stop the Internet file-sharing networks that consumers used to download copyrighted music. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, rebuffed the music and movie industries when it declined to review a lower-court ruling that Internet peer-to-peer networks (which linked individual consumer PCs) were not legally liable if their users exchanged copyrighted music and movies. The 2003 lower-court decision the Supreme Court let stand also said that the music and motion picture industries could not rely on subpoenas alone to force Internet service providers to disclose the names of customers who allegedly shared copyrighted files; a court review would be required first.

The U.S. Congress considered aiding the music industry in its fight against file-sharing networks. The Senate introduced a bill, called the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, that would make a person who induced another to violate copyright law legally liable for the violation. The legislation would, in effect, ban the peer-to-peer networks, but some analysts feared that it also could adversely affect some consumer electronics products, such as MP3 -music players, that could potentially be used in violation of copyright.

The success of online music sales piqued Hollywood's interest in online movie rentals. The distribution of online movies was being handled through authorized movie-download services that permitted viewing a rental for a limited period of time. The services generally offered a relatively small selection of titles, but some permitted rental of an unlimited number of the available films for a flat monthly fee. The process of downloading feature films was slow and could take hours. TiVo, the maker of a digital video recorder that copied television programming onto a computer hard disk, planned an alternative service that would enable consumers to download movies and music from the Internet for a fee.

High-speed, or broadband, service for Internet access continued to grow. By some estimates it was being used by slightly more than one-half of U.S. residential users who had some type of Internet access, up from slightly less than 40% one year earlier. Broadband service was offered both by telephone companies, typically through a digital subscriber line (DSL), and by cable TV firms. The number of broadband subscribers worldwide was expected to more than triple between the beginning of 2004 and the end of 2008. In the long run, wireless Internet service and satellite Internet service also were expected to contribute to the spread of broadband. A handful of U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, expressed interest in providing broadband service to their citizens through wireless technology.

Portions from Britannica