However, the expected lifetime of a foil recording was very short, mainly because of the fact that after a few playbacks the sound impressions were either worn down or ripped. ... However, in the 1980s, vinyl records were gradually replaced in mainstream music consumer markets with the compact disc, better known as the CD. ... A CD is an optical disc made from a 1.2mm thick disc of polycarbonate plastic coated with a thinner aluminum layer, protected by a film of lacquer. ...

• Word Count: 582
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Because MP3s are often pirated copies of music protected by copyright law, the music industry is filing lawsuits against the P2P software companies. The software companies supporting MP3s are counter-suing in an effort to protect this technology that has many uses beyond the infringement of copyright (Borland 1). ... Most MP3 users compress files at a 10:1 ratio which still provides CD quality sound. ... Ripping and encoding programs extracted music tracks off of CDs and encoded the songs into the MP3 file format. With this software, anyone with a music CD and computer could produce a MP3 file...

• Word Count: 4257
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate