Preview Or Piracy?

To download for free or not to download for free; that is a question which has plagued internet users, and record company executives regarding MP3 (music) files since the creation of Napster in 1999.   Shawn Fanning was an 18 year old college student back then who thought there should be a way for people to share their MP3 files.   He concocted a code by which people who were storing music files on their personal computers could share them with other computer users without putting those files on a central server first.   The peer-to-peer, or P2P, system was born .

For a while everything was fine.   If you heard a song in a movie that you absolutely loved, you`d go to Napster, search for the user who had the soundtrack of that particular movie and download the song from them to enjoy until you actually bought the disc yourself.

Maybe you`d be driving home from work one afternoon and hear a new song on the car radio.   You`re not sure you want to invest in a CD yet, so you just download the song, and maybe one other from the same artist, just to see if this new sound suits you.  

Is this practice any different than borrowing a recording from a friend and making our own copy of it?   I know many people, including myself, who`ve gone out and purchased a CD, or even concert tickets, after sampling music through Napster or a similar program.   It seems to be a win-win situation for both the performer and the fan.   However, somewhere along the way we forgot about the record company.   These are the conglomerate corporations who produce, promote and market music CD`s.   They are also the ones who profit the most from CD sales.   It should come as no surprise then that the record companies claim to be the parties harmed most by Napster-type programs.  

By the same token, they had the legal and financial clout to bring Napster to a halt in mid-May 2000 claiming mega monetary losses due to P2P music sharing.

While some well known artists did speak out during the hearings regarding their own perceived damages from P2P MP3 downloading, more artists did not.   My teenaged son attended a concert six months ago where he was fortunate enough to meet with the band.   During that short visit the subject of music file sharing came up.   The