Essay - The Right to Listen for Free One of the Most...

The Right to Listen for Free

One of the most controversial issues in the music business today is the *****sue of selling music through the Internet. The ongoing and evolving process of ***** and disseminating music through the ***** has provoked a number of economic ********** well as artistic debates for the ***** ***** and for the computer and technology businesses that allow such ***** to be accessed. This paper will address some of these concerns with a particular focus on the anti-trust ***** ***** have arisen over the course ***** this debate.

First of all, the issue of disseminating music over the Internet provokes the perplexing question of who re*****y 'owns' the commercial product of a pieces of music, anyway? Is the owner the person or *****s who simply hear the tune and keep humming it? ***** the owner the ********** who produces the product? Or are the ********** the music companies musicians have signed artistic rights to? Clearly, to survive ***** must be able to charge ***** the product they produce, ***** the companies have control ***** the specifics of how to market that product. But once a song is in the public sphere, do not consumers have a right ***** 'p*****s on' ***** music product in ways that they see fit, even if those ways may inhibit the sales ***** recordings of that music?

The issue of musical downloads on the Internet also raises the ***** of numerous anti-trust issues. How can ***** music industry and recording labels stem the spread ***** specific kinds technologies, produced by other ***** or technological companies, which allow individuals to download music free of *****? These recording labels and musicians wish for those ***** to pay for the privilege of ********** and listening to ***** music, yet such *****s necessitate a kind of coll*****boration between industries that is unprecedented and possibly in danger ***** violating anti-trust laws.

Of course, music ***** never been an easily controlled commodity because of the nature ***** the artistic medium itself. Even before the invention of ***** World Wide Web and Napster, the question ***** controlling music as a commodity has ***** an issue for ***** labels and musicians. 'Bootlegged' recording of concerts has al***** been a problem for musicians when selling concert tickets ***** tapes. This ***** also ***** true ***** the circulation of taped music from the radio and CDs. ***** simply the fact ***** free music is accessible on the radio and on television, has made it difficult for ***** and music companies to exercise full control over a music*****l *****. What is so unique about the current *****sues provoked ***** ***** Internet, however, is that the Internet allows for an unprecedented level of d*****semination of music on such a high ***** of qual*****y ***** qu*****tity. Without some sort of regulation it seems that ***** over the commodity of a *****al product could conceivably leave the hands ***** the musicians, agents, and ***** music ***** that disseminate the product entirely. Yet without monetary