Ethics+and+MP3's



Do you like music? Everyone does! Although no one has the exact same taste, there is probably someone else out there who loves Huey Lewis and the News as much as you do. What if they had the albums you didn't, and you had the albums they were missing? You could swap CD's (or vinyl, if that's your pleasure) and finally hear "Hip to Be Square", or that one in Back to the Future. You know the one I mean. The one they pretend to play to get in to the Battle of the Bands contest, and Huey doing a cameo as the guy who tells them they're too loud...

Anyway, the only problem is that you've never met the other fan of the News (what those in the know call the band), plus they live in Australia and you live in Indiana, plus they don't lend out CD's after they didn't get their Boston's Greatest Hits back.

There is only one thing to do! Install Napster on your computer. Wait, Napster is too old. Plus there was thing with the lawsuit...install Kazaa on your computer. It's a piece of software that will connect your computer to a file-sharing service where you can look around for Huey Lewis and the News music, and download the songs quickly in a small, compact format called MP3's, which are playable on media players like RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or WinAmp. In fact, there are a lot of programs like Kazaa (Morpheus, iMesh, AudioGalaxy, Bearshare, Limewire are a few) that will let you share your music files with other users around the world. You can share other kinds of files too, like software, movies, text, and images.

What? Free movies, music, and software? It's paradise!

Well, no. File sharing has serious legal and ethical implications when copyrighted material is involved. As a member of society, it's important that you have some facts before you, your firends, or your family members use a file-sharing program.



Each student will research the role the following individuals has. **music industry executive | musician | record store owner | high school student** Research each position so that you can represent each point of view. Check out the links before you start anything else:

* [|Sons of Napster costing industry] * [|RIAA Threastens Orgy of Lawsuits]

Now, check out the links for each role: **[|music industry executive] / [|musician] / [|record store owner] / [|high school student]** After you've looked at the links and taken notes, write a postition paper with all four points of view represented and but one prevailing opinion. Discuss each point of view along with the arguments.

The specifics for what is expected in the paper can be found in the rubric.