Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Michigan

Re: Fair Use Vs. Copyright

That is certainly one of the questions of the moment in copyright law.

Broadly speaking, the same basic "fair use" questions apply as in any other case. If the use is for educational purposes, is non comercial, and relatiely small, you have a case for fair use. If it makes money, or takes money out of the copyright owners' pocket, and it is relatively large and not educational, you have less of a claim. The copyright issues concerning Napster are too complex to summarize here.

I believe that the functioning of Napster is copyright infringement. That said, simply listening to music obtained off of Napster for fun is not too comercial, is relatively minor, and I believe is not likely (at this point) to draw a copyright infringement suit. (Although copyright owners do lose revenue). Any kind of such activity for profit, or on a grander scale, is more likely to.