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Napster vs. the Recording Industry In 1998 a college student named Shawn Fanning created the first mp3 file-sharing program. File sharing is the exchange of files from computer to computer via the Internet. So why do some companies and music artists oppose this operation? The Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA for short, says that Napster infringed on copyrighted material. There are many ways to look at this situation, weather it is free music or free access to music. Some artists oppose the program while others think it the greatest thing since the radio. Napster is a new program that has created great controversy over file-sharing, the rights to whom the music belongs, and weather or not copyrighted music should be transferred. The bottom line is that it is free music is being downloaded by users worldwide. The RIAA and record labels are afraid of losing money; they could care less about protecting the music itself (Newsweek, June 5 2000.) Shawn Fanning, a nineteen-year-old college drop out, found himself at the center of one of the biggest controversies over piracy and copyrighted material in America’s history. Napster was incorporated in May of 1999. Fanning’s idea came to mind while a freshman a