MP3s and legal issues

What is an MP3?

MP3's are one of the many best things that happened in the new age of technology. The MP3 generation started with a large amount of audience using the internet, and not from an industry. There are many audio files .wav, wma, and mp3, but only mp3 music files are known to play in any audio devise. With MP3's you can download songs in minutes depending on your internet connection speed rather than in hours. MP3 is simply a file format that compresses a song into a smaller size. It is then easier to move around on the internet. MP3 music files are CD quality, depending on its bit rate. MP3 files that are encoded with lower bit rate will play at a lower quality than from a higher bit rate. The quality of MP3 files really depend on the difficulty of the signal being recorded and the encoder. A 33 MB song on a CD compresses down to about 3 MB.

Listening to MP3 music files can't get any easier and simple then it is. All you need to listen to MP3 files on your computer is a computer, speakers, a sound card, internet connection, and an MP3 player (software application). Source #4

MP3 History

In 1988, the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) was established as a subcommittee by the ISO/IEC standardization body to develop useful application standards for the coded representation of motion pictures, related audio and the combination of the two. MPEG-1 Audio consisted of three modes, called Layers, with each succeeding layer increasing in complexity, which were identified Layer-1, Layer-2 and Layer-3. Layer-3 provided the highest level of sound quality at fairly low bit rates of 128 bits per second for a stereo signal. This layer became known as MP3 for short. (Source #2)

MP3 and the Law

 

*Who owns the copyright?

*What rights are included?

*The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992

*The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995

*The No Electronic Theft Act

*The Federal Anti-Bootleg Statute

*The Digital Millenium Copyright Act

*Exceptions to Exclusive Rights

*Comparative Law

All these issues are discussed and explained inSource #3.

*Sharing MP3s (Source #5)

MP3 Technology

Source #1

• describes and explains the technological makeup of MP3's.

Group - MP3ANATORS

• Mario Duart
• Margaret Dwyer
• Steven Reeves
• Stephanie Clark

Sources

1. Wiki article on MP3s 
2. http://www.mp3reference.com/history.htm
3. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/mp3/
4. http://www.ez-tracks.com/why_mp3.html
5. http://www.2-spyware.com/news/post186.html 

Meetings

Drafts

Draft 1

Draft 2