In fact, the recording industry is after the material copied by USERS of Napster, not Napster itself. Napster (to state the painfully obvious) merely allows people to share those files that THEY own. Those files were produced on THEIR computers from CD's THEY (more likely than not) bought at a store. It's like taping a song off the radio and sharing the tape with a friend. Napster is being penilized because their software makes it easier. It is being forced to pay for exercising it's First Amendment rights (yes, a program is a form of expression). Of course this is silly, and of course it won't work.
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In fact, the recording industry is after the material copied by USERS of Napster, not Napster itself. Napster (to state the painfully obvious) merely allows people to share those files that THEY own. Those files were produced on THEIR computers from CD's THEY (more likely than not) bought at a store. It's like taping a song off the radio and sharing the tape with a friend. Napster is being penilized because their software makes it easier. It is being forced to pay for exercising it's First Amendment rights (yes, a program is a form of expression). Of course this is silly, and of course it won't work.