Music controversy continues

By Mary Hoang

Daily Bruin Contributor

Internet music downloading systems are under fire by record
industry lawsuits, and both sides are pointing the finger on each
other.

Napster, a Web site that allows users to download free music,
continues to operate pending an appeal of Judge Marilyn Hall
Patel’s July 28 decision to stop the site from operating.

In a statement released after the initial ruling, Napster CEO
Hank Barry said, “The Judge’s ruling is essentially
this: that one-to-one non-commercial file sharing violates the
law.”

Although Napster may be the most well-known among them, a number
of Web sites allow for the trading of music in the form of MP3
files.

Scour, a company which started as the dorm room project of five
UCLA computer science students in 1997, also provides multimedia
exchange, including movies.

Scour is now awaiting trial after a joint Recording Industry
Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America
lawsuit against the company.

Digital media downloading software has become popular on college
campuses like UCLA, wired with high-speed Internet connections.

A firewall was put up against Napster at UCSD starting in
February. According to a UCSD Web site, officials blocked the site
because it was inhibiting the use of the network for academic
purposes. UCLA has not taken similar action.

But the effect of accelerated exchange has taken a toll on
record sales at local retailers.

At Penny Lane Records in Westwood, manager Fred Sablan said
there has been a decline in the number of students who go into the
store but sales have not gone down.

“Without access to music on the Internet, sales would
probably go up with more students coming in to purchase
music,” he said.

Despite students’ easy access to Internet music trading
software, the Associated Students of UCLA is continuing plans to
open a CD store in the Ackerman Student Union.

“We do expect pirating to have a negative effect on the
store,” said Terrence Hsiao, ASUCLA director of business
development.

But Hsiao said packaging holds some value, and people feel that
they should pay for the works of others.

Second-year computer science student Genesan Kim took advantage
of the fast connection and Napster in the dorms last year.

“I think that Napster helps artists by making them more
well-known, and it helps students financially because they
don’t need to buy more CDs,” he said.

Napster allows the exchange of music that may have been pirated
without the permission of the artist. Record companies are fuming
because they say anyone can have access to their artists’
work, but the artists gain nothing from pirating. The RIAA, which
filed the suit against Napster, represents record companies
nationwide.

Scour spokesman Miguel Cortez said the company has held firm in
the belief that it is not the agent of copyright infringements
because it does not put the songs out on the Internet for others to
download. The users are the ones who are exchanging the
information.

The RIAA said they should not be responsible for policing
Scour’s system to ensure the work of artists are not being
infringed.

“Companies like Scour are making billion dollar businesses
off of the work of others without their consent,” said Amy
Weiss, spokeswoman for the RIAA. “That is just wrong and they
should not be doing that.”

Both Scour and RIAA acknowledge music can coexist in the CD form
and online, but the RIAA does not want music to be a free product
in the digital world.

“Why would anyone want to purchase authorized music online
from a site that charges $1 a song for the same song that someone
can get from Napster for free?” said Weiss.