Level: Grades 9 - 12
Overview
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In this lesson, students debate the controversy surrounding file-sharing music files on the Internet. Through class discussion and debate, students explore the ethics surrounding the use of file-sharing software such as Napster from the perspective of various stakeholders, such as recording executives, artists and consumers.
Learning Outcomes Students will:
- analyse the impact of the Internet on the recording industry
- understand the implications of copyright and intellectual property as it relates to file-sharing
- appreciate the ethical questions that relate to file-sharing
- appreciate the perspectives of the various stakeholder groups who are involved in this issue
Preparation and Materials
Procedure
Introduction:
Begin the class by reading the following backgrounder to students:
Started in 1999, Napster is the controversial file-sharing service that marked the precedent-setting court case in the United States regarding file-sharing music files, or MP3s.
On March 6, 2001, a federal judge ordered the song swapping service to remove copyrighted material in its system. (Napster allowed consumers to sample music at random.) The number of users went from 1.1 million in its early stages to 64 million users by March 2001.
Critics assert that the industry is paranoid and unwilling to innovate, and must take part of the blame. "The record industry has been sitting pretty for many years and Napster is a wake-up call," says Brahm Eiley, President of Convergence Consulting Group in Toronto. Recent surveys indicate that that Napster users are more likely to buy CDs than non-users and are more willing to pay for online music services as well. However, Brian Robertson of the Canadian Recording Industry Association asserts "The writing is on the wall. There's a whole generation of young people growing up with the view that they don't have to buy sound recordings. If that continues, there's obviously less music available to enjoy in the future."
Thanks to pressure from Napster's phenomenal success, the industry is now proposing new ways of legally downloading music through paid subscriptions and various user fees. Vivendi and Sony have announced plans to launch a "virtual jukebox." However, the techies and hackers continue to find loop-holes in the system that allow them to download Napster. Now that people have had a taste of freedom, it's going to be difficult to ask them to go back to the old ways. Clearly, there is a potential gold mine on the Web. Andersen Consulting estimates online music sales will reach 3.2 billion (US) by 2005.
In the last ten years, everything in the entertainment business has led to centralized control. The success of Napster is obviously an exercise in decentralization, which is full of exciting possibilities as well as perils for musicians and producers.
Discussion Points
Ask students:
- Who has used Napster or similar software?
- Can anyone explain how file-sharing software works?
- What other brands of file-sharing software do students use? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
- To what extent have people acquired new tastes in music because of the ready access to the thousands of recordings?
- Has Napster changed your attitude towards music? How?
- What about video files? Is it acceptable to share movies on the Internet?
Copyright:
Copyright law bestows certain rights on both producers and users. For example, there has been a 'fair use' clause in copyright that allows people to sample other people's works. One thinks of rap artists who sample other musicians' work in their songs. Copying whole albums, CDs and videotape is illegal, but has become socially acceptable (although there is a U.S. Copyright privilege that states that this is acceptable for non-commercial use.)
- What do you think of the ethics of copying?
- As a class, discuss Courtney Love's observation: "Stealing our copyright provisions in the dead of night when no-one is looking is piracy. It's not piracy when kids swap music over the Internet using Napster. There were one billion downloads last year, but music sales are way up, so how is Napster hurting the music industry? It's not. The only people who are scared of Napster are the people who have filler on their albums and are scared that if people hear more than one single they're not going to buy the album."
Remuneration:
- With everyone freely swapping bits, how will artists and writers who created those bits get paid for their efforts?
- Brainstorm some workable solutions.
- What do you think would be good compromises for the music industry to make?
Homework Assignment
- Use the Quotes from Artists to discuss some advantages of Napster. (With the exception of Metallica, these are generally positive.) Examine each quote and defend or refute the arguments.
Activities
Activity One
The music business is complex and includes many stages before there is a finished product.
- Have students research the costs for producing and selling a CD. Although the CD may only cost a dollar to produce, many aspects must be factored into the final price. They must consider:
- the physical production cost
- calculate the marketing budget (which can be astronomical)
- reckon with the challenge of effective distribution
- arrange for deals of returned CDs which are not selling
- figure out a store's overhead and the royalties owing to performers.
- Once students have completed their research, have them write a report on their findings and state whether this kind of information changed their mind about the economics of the music industry.
Activity Two
In their journals, have students respond to the following statement by media educator Andrew Driska:
"Who are the real thieves? Napster users or the record companies who have shot CD prices through the roof? It is important to detach artists and artistic creation from the business of selling records, and it should be known that record execs and recording artists don't always see eye to eye.
This has to be one of the greatest propaganda lines of the capitalist system. The assumption that artists only create for money is shallow and only a business culture could come up with a line so insultingly dumb. The impulse to create happens regardless of your financial situation. Many bands have very humble beginnings. When bands get signed they often see it as getting paid to do something you love. Of course some are only in it for the money -- every profession has people like that. But it should be noted that industrial people (record executives) and musicians are two different kinds of people. To an industrialist, the primary motivation is money; to the artist the primary motivation is art."
- Do you agree that without copyright laws there will be no impulse to create?
- What is your response to these observations?
Activity Three
Napster Simulation Game
In preparation for a debate and/or simulation game, participants should conduct online research about Napster in order to assess the arguments from both sides. (There are many Web sites that use Napster as a case study for file-sharing on the Web.) As in any debate, it is essential to anticipate the arguments against your position. (The tricky part of this role-playing exercise will be to find students, who are mostly pro-Napster, arguing the industry point of view.) Role play the following representatives of the different factions in the debate about Napster:
- Record industry executives who like the current system and want to keep the status quo.
- Artists who feel they are being unfairly exploited by the system and who believe ultimately that they gain from having open access to music files.
- Artist's such as Metallica who despise Napster and believe their income has been harmed by the exchange of music files.
- Napster users who believe that the record industry has had excessive profits and exploited their artists, especially those who are not superstars.
- Napster users who may not have an axe to grind, but sing Napster's praises because the system has served to developed their musical tastes thanks to the incredible quantity and range of choice.
Final point for discussion:
How might the future of both the entertainment business and our current delivery of education be radically altered if we were to take the Napster example to its logical conclusion? This would be a digital universe in which decentralization would be the norm and we would all be encouraged to share our files of diverse materials from songs to books. What is your response to this vision?
Evaluation:
- Journal entries, class debate and class discussion.
