Napster: (http://www.Napster.com) is a company that operates exclusively online as a virtual music forum. Napster not only allows its visitors the ability to participate in ongoing discussions through its message board forums and online virtual chat rooms, but it also allows its visitors the capability to exchange music files (MP3s) with other Internet users. Because Napster is a "virtual" online public forum, Napster should be protected under the First Amendment. Under the First Amendment, "we the people," are protected by these rights of freedom of speech and assembly. The idea of people coming together in one specific area of the Internet and being able to talk about music is essentially a right of all Americans. We have the right to "freedom of assembly" and the right to "freedom of speech." This is why Napster should not be shut down. Napster should be protected under the First Amendment. What is a Napster? Shawn Fanning was a nineteen-year-old college student at Northeast University, when he first introduced his program Napster. Fanning had two loves: one was sports and the other was computers. As his curiosity grew for computers, he decided to stop playing sports. He then concentrated most of his time working with computers. He primarily focused on two aspects of the computer, programming and the Internet. During his freshman year at Northeast University, in 1998, Fanning was trying to enter computer science classes higher than the entry level (Jones, 2001, 1A). Not finding anything challenging about the courses he was enrolled in, Fanning decided to start writing a Windows based program in his spare time. He spent most of his time in chat rooms with experienced programmers who knew the tricks of the trade, so to speak, of computer networking. Shawns roommate loved music files, most commonly known as MP3s, but disliked most music sites that had limited music files available. He also disliked the idea of having to search endless...
