mp3 file sharing
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Since the development of the MP3 back in 1987 at the Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen in Germany, MPEG-1 Layer III (or Mp3's) have been available to the public. MP3's were originally developed as a way to compress media files (roughly 1/10 of a CD recording) to be used in motion pictures. Today we have the technology to take a CD, compress the file, and share it over the internet so that people can download the file and have the same CD for no cost. This process is called file-sharing. Peer-to-peer
programs such as Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire have made it possible to put the MP3s that a person has on his or her computer and share them with anybody with an internet connection. There is only one major set back, the sharing of copyrighted music is illegal and can have substantial fines and even jail time.
The downloading of copyrighted music has been a controversial issue for quite some time now, whether it is a legal or moral issue there are people to argue both sides. There have been numerous court cases of major record companies suing students, adults, and senior citizens for having copyrighted music on their computers. How do they know you have copyrighted music? When you log on to one of these peer-to-peer programs you are granting other people permission to rummage around the files on your computer...