BY JENI DEERY
deery@newsroom.byu.edu
With a computer, modem and a little knowledge, thousands of songs may be available to download.
Some students feel accessing these MP3 music sites is harmless, but they actually could be infringing on copyright law which has a penalty of up to three years imprisonment, $250,000 fine and a felony charge.
MP3 is a technology that compresses a music file so it can be downloaded to a personal computer from the Internet in as short as five minutes.
This technology makes music more widely available. Just one Web site alone, such as MP3.com, can provide thousands of songs free to download.
Downloading music from MP3.com or My.MP3.com is legal, said Steve Jones, professor and head of communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But exactly what is legal and illegal is a hazy issue to most the public.
'The act of downloading MP3's is not necessarily illegal,' he said. 'The question is who owns the copyright and what you're downloading and whether you have permission to download.'
He said if the copyright owner grants permission to have his or her song in downloadable form on the Internet, then it is perfectly legal for the person posting it and the person downloading it -- which is what MP3.com does.
This acts as a service for some artists who are trying to get their music to the public, says Sean Yergensen, a computer support representative for BYU.
Jones says it is also legal to buy a CD and upload the music to a computer for personal use only. This is comparable to recording a CD to cassette tape and listening to it in the car, he said.
Copyright infringement comes into play when a person makes a copyrighted song available to others, such as putting it on a Web site.
With such easy access to copyright infringement and damage to record and software companies, the No Electronic Theft Act was created in 1997 to stiffen copyright law.
Utah Congressman Chris Cannon introduced the law that redefined copyright law to include the receipt of copyrighted works is not permissible. The law says it is illegal to distribute works even if it is done with no commercial gain.
'There's a whole lot of 'what ifs' on whether (downloading MP3's) is illegal or not,' Jones said.
One popular aspect of MP3 technology that can be illegal is when online users access the site napster.com, which provides a virtual network of music.
Napster.com links any user who logs on to the site to all the other user's MP3 files.
Though the site does not permit users to make copyrighted music available to others, a BYU student -- who wished to remain anonymous -- said it is the easiest way to get access to popular music that is copyrighted.
'This is getting pretty popular and as far as I know, the amount of people using it is exploding,' the user said.
He said when he goes into the Tanner Building each day, he'll see students with the Napster screen on their laptop computers connected to BYU's port.
Because the university's connection is so fast, a song may take five minutes to download on campus compared to 30 minutes to an hour with a modem at home, he said.
The Web site provides a convenience for music lovers, he said.
'It's more convenient because if you like one song, rather than the whole CD, you can get one song -- and it's free.'
Another convenience is when music is played from a computer, it's easier to make a playlist, he said.
Though the user said he does have some guilt from obtaining the free music.
'I want to support the band, and I understand they worked hard to produce, so I do feel kind of bad,' he said.
Others say downloading music is a bigger hassle than it is worth.
Jon-David Ethington, 22, a junior from Sandy, majoring in exercise science, doesn't think it's worth it.
'I tried to find a song once for like 20 minutes, but I couldn't find it, so I've never tried to get music (off the Internet) again,' Ethington said.
But he said it might be worth it if you know where to go on the Net, but even then it's not convenient for him to have it only on his laptop computer that has just a tiny speaker.
Yergensen agreed.
'No one has the time or the resources to download all the songs they want,' he said.
But when an Internet user knows how to find songs and distribute them on the Web, it may be so easy for them to break the law, that they don't even know they are doing it.
'I think it's kind of one of those things that it's legal until you know it's not,' Ethington said.
But record companies aren't happy, and the FBI is cracking down.
Jeffrey Levy learned the hard way.
Levy, a student at the University of Oregon, was convicted last August for copyright infringement for illegally posting copyrighted software programs, musical recording and digitally recorded movies on his Web site.
He was the first person to be prosecuted under the more stringent copyright law.
More recently, the Recording Industry Association of America filed suit against MP3.com last month for allegedly allowing copyrighted music to be downloaded.
Jones said overall he thinks the problem could be resolved not with stricter legislation, but with education.
'What we probably need is better understanding in the public about what appropriate and inappropriate things are,' Jones said.
See related story:
Web site helps filter Internet pornography out of homes 03/05/2000
Internet recruiters provide results for some students, bomb with others 03/05/2000
Internet still provides good money-making opportunities for great ideas 03/05/2000
BYU students take business ideas to the Internet 03/05/2000