The music wars

摘要

Despite the many opportunities for using the Internet as a tool for receiving or listening to music, the options are fewer in number now than 1-2 years ago, when many of the swapping services involved infractions of the copyright laws. The copyright application to online music is beginning to be clarified through decisions in an amazing number of lawsuits and countersuits over the past few years. Napster was forced offline in July 2001 after a US District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering Napster to close until a higher court reviewed the case. Napster is only one of several companies pursuing a business model involving the exchange of music files. Another major player in the Napster era was MP3.com. The considerable activity in the courts regarding the protection of music copyright has raised important new definitional issues that needed to be resolved for the online music business to proceed toward a new stage of development.