Everyone who uses the Internet has heard of some way to swap MP3 files back and forth. A lot of people who don’t even use the Internet have heard of Napster, Scour, Aimster, Gnutella, etc. Why is this? Napster has gained a lot of notoriety lately, but how could one computer program written by a teenager become so popular? This college dropout’s program makes it very easy to listen to your favorite music for free, and this has the recording industry up in arms while many artists are pro-Napster.7 In the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, the U.S. Government declared it legal to share music, and make recordings of it, as long as it is not used commercially or to make a profit. The recording industry could benefit from Napster’s distribution model, and Napster could benefit from the copyrights of the major record labels. Both the recording industry and Napster could benefit from working with one another while revolutionizing the way music is distributed to consumers.
Surfacing in late 1999, Napster is a relatively new Internet service that could be considered a “listen before you buy it” service. Napster was developed by an eighteen year-old college freshman, Shawn Fanning, as a way to share files on the Internet, specifically digital MP3 music files. The old way of getting music by going to the store and buying a CD before hearing all the songs on it is long passed. The new way of shopping for music is to listen to all of the songs on the CD before purchasing it. This is also done by most of the large retail chains as they permit you to listen to the latest music that is for sale in their store. Online music stores also allow you to listen to certain songs from the album before you buy it via the Internet. However, the difference here is that with Napster, the music can be played over and over again, and the recording industry claims that this would be a reason not to buy the album as it is already archived on your hard drive.
My Definition of Success
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
– Bruce Lee –
What is success? Society is always striving for a definition to define it and how others can and have achieved it. This paper will illustrate the definition of success, what makes society success or not success, and what my personal definition of success is. This will show how twisted and materialistic people can really be in today’s world.
In the dictionary.com definition success is the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted. Many people feel that they have lived up to this definition. In the article by Alan Ruddock he states “society has been transformed by economic success and is now a much harsher place, full of grim individualists who measure success by the accumulation of wealth.” For example many feel Bill Gates is a success because he created Microsoft and is one of the richest individuals in the world. He is also very giving with his money by giving it away to many charities which will benefit others. One with that kind of money has billions to give away. No one person can have that much and not give some away because they already have everything they could possible want. A school system could also be considered successful depending on how many of their students graduate and do well on the standardized test which the state gives out. For many suburban schools they are very successful because of the teachers the city is bringing in to teach their children. In my home town we are one of the best school systems in the state of Ohio because we live in a wealthier neighborhood and also we have the money to pay for newer text books and other th…
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…y matter are your family and friends and those whose lives you have touched.
As you can see society definitely needs to be relooked at on what they think is successful. People are becoming more and more greedy. They only care about themselves and don’t look at the bigger picture of life. Success needs to be thought of as a journey not just the end result. Whether my own definition or the dictionary.com definition I feel we can all benefit from understanding what success really is.
Works Cited
Fagg, Jonathan. It’s Time you stopped teaching us a flawed concept of ‘achievement’; 2003 July 28. EDUCATION pg. 8. 4 November 2008.
Ruddock, Alan. “Dependency, not success, creates a weak society.” 3 April 2005. Features; Erie News 19. 4 November 2008.
Shah, Sonali. “Podium: Don’t hold back the disabled.” 6 January 1999. COMMENT pg. 4. 4 November 2008.