Rocking and Ripping on the World Wide Web : The Collision between Digital Music and Copyright Law

As a new and global communications medium, the Internet has enabled the quick and effective dissemination of digitized content. For popular and technological reasons, the music industry has become the first major content industry to face the legal issues surrounding the rapid and widespread distribution of digital music. This article attempts to summarize the legal and business issues arising from the recent litigation in the United States between the American recording industry and several technology service providers (in particular, the Napster case); and offers a glimpse of the major players, commercial stakes and innovative solutions that have emerged as notable features and consequences of these cases