Copyright Policies and Issues Raised byA&M Records v. Napster: “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” or “Not with a Bang but a Whimper?”

Abstract The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the case of A&M Records v. Napster (2001a) represented a resounding legal victory for the record companies over the largest of the Internet music exchange services. Napster’s ultimate survival is uncertain at best, but the key for the record industry is not Napster’s eventual life or death per se. Rather, final victory will be determined by whether the music industry can parlay its legal triumph over Napster into any real control of the music piracy that still thrives on the Internet, threatening to alter intellectual property exchange permanently. In this paper, the authors analyze the legal arguments related to Internet digital music transfer and the future of the music industry in light of the current legal and technological environment.