Digital technology has effectively changed the music industry almost beyond recognition.With the introduction of MP3's and the downloading of music, there have been many new impacts on society. While advances in technology are made everyday, MP3's are just one step further in the advancement of music. However, this new technology presents society with a variety of social and ethical issues. Record companies and music stores have seen a decline in record sales since the development of this new format of sound file, and countless copyright violations have taken place. To complicate matters even more, inventions in hardware that promote the use of MP3s has contributed to this loss in revenue.
B : The IT Background of the Issue.
MP3s were derived from MPEGs, which are audio compression algorithms developed as a standard for the high fidelity compression of audio. It is one part audio, two parts video and systems. The high performance of this algorithm is due to the exploitation of auditory masking. This is the technical term for the phenomena whereby whenever the ear detects a strong audio signal, it "masks out" a spectral neighbourhood of weaker audio signals. So by eliminating these sounds which would have been inaudible to the human ear anyway, MP3 compression can reduce the size of an original file to a ratio of up to 12:1 without any excessive loss of sound quality. It is this compression that makes MP3 such an attractive format for the transmission of music over the web.
Over the past few years, there have been many trends and developments in this domain to encourage the continuance of illegally downloading music off the internet. The creation of illegal programs such as Morpheus , Kazaa and Grokster ( also called file-sharing, because they allow individual computer users to share their files), have gained popularity by making a plethora of music readily available to users from the comfort of their own homes.
Are MP3's a breakthrough in technology or are they just another bomb waiting to explode on us? ... The acronym MP3 stands for Moving Picture Exports Group 1, Audio Layer 3. ... Many believe that MP3's are breaking copyrights and is a form of online piracy. ... When people download MP3's from the Internet, they fail to recognize the copyrights that are in place. ... The legality of downloading MP3 files is not clear-cut. ...
This is the same thing that people do with mp3 files. ... There is a new walkman-like mp3 player on the horizon. "Rio," a small, lightweight mp3 player can be taken anywhere. A person can encode his own mp3 files onto the computer and then transfer them to the portable mp3 player. This portability gives people more freedom to distribute mp3 files. ...
MP3 is actually a music file of computer. The name of MP3 came from the extension name of this music file. ... Most PC->Player MP3 software is pretty good and easy to use. ... Both an MP3 player and an MD player are fun toys. ... However, it's very obvious that MD player is better MP3 player mostly because storage for MD player is far cheaper than MP3 player. ...
Particularly music files otherwise known as MP3 files. ... This has been made extremely popular by a program called Napster, which allows people to share music over the net in MP3 form. ... Napster and MP3's can help out in that aspect a lot. ... The fact is that there are many companies that have invested a lot of money into the downloading of MP3's. If they completely out law downloading and sharing MP3's, there might end up being another lawsuit with the companies that have invested money in MP3's and it may turn into a big social disadvantage. ...
This consists of the record companies charging a fee to web sites that have MP3 distribution software. ... Organizations Foremost among the primary industry groups battling MP3 sites is the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). These are the people responsible for encouraging mostly high school and college students that MP3 piracy is illegal and morally wrong. ... The consumer-sponsored mp3.com is a good example of an organization solely responsible for acquiring consumer appreciation. Mp3.com has fought a few court battles in the past and has come to terms with the relentless purs...
Apple's sleek, white-and-silver IPod is not only the best-looking MP3 player I have seen, it's also the easiest to, if you own a Macintosh, although PC users are now able to take advantage of this nice piece of hardware. The IPod's 40GB hard drive lets you fit about 10 thousand 160-kbps MP3 files into a package. ... The Rio Karma, a 20-GB, USB 2.0, hard-disk player, can hold over 5,000 MP3 songs and has a ergonomic industrial design. ... This hard disk MP3 player appeals to all levels of MP3 consumers. ... What's more, it supports MP3, WMA, and Ogg Vorbis compression t...
The MP3 Format: What Is It and Is It Legal To Obtain Online? ... The MP3 format was designed by the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG). ... The computer file extension is ".mp3". ... MP3 capability is now included as a part of many DVD players. The portable CD player has been expanded to include the MP3 format. ...
Mp3's are a good thing. ... So why don't we just abolish all mp3's? ... I think he is too one-sided, leading him to overlook mp3 downloads from people who are opposed to mp3's such as profit, and the way the recording artist has no way of control over their own music. ... Harris, speaking as a student writer to other students, also states the ease of downloading mp3's. ... In sum, Harris" article is important because it examines the benefits of downloading mp3 files. ...
In 1987, the Moving Pictures Expert Group created a standard in music media called a MPEG 3 or MP3. MP3's allow users to take audio CD's and store them in compressed files on their computers. Because of their small size, MP3's quickly adapted to the online environment. ... As I wrote this essay, I downloaded 62 MP3 song titles from Napster. ... Before the news of Napster's closing there were two MP3 "traders- today there are more than a hundred. ...
