For their final project, second semester Northern Virginia Community College Composition students (ENG 112) work in groups to create presentations that introduce, analyze, and draw a conclusion about a significant American cultural artifact, (a trend, a celebrity, or anything that significantly impacts American culture). Students work together to build a persuasive argument using a combination of text, multimedia, and visual design. Students develop a claim about the negative or positive impact of the artifact on the demographic of American culture it affects. Alternatively, students may discuss what the artifact says about our culture. These students are asked to explore a cultural artifact and determine its significance and/or role in our society. Students are encouraged to present their findings using any media they wish to implement.

1. Claudia, Casey, Svitlana, Krista

2. About the Contributors
Claudia Granados: an education major. Second
semester at Nova. In five years I want to be
teaching first grade.
Krista Plaugher: an education major. This is my
second semester at NOVA. In five years, I plan
to be teaching kindergarten.

3. About the Contributors (Cont.)
Casey Conley: I have been at nova 4
semesters and I plan to get my associates to
be an ultrasound technician!
Svitlana Rutaieva: I have been at NOVA 6
semesters. My goal is Community Health, BS

4. Thesis Statement
Our culture will go to extreme, sometimes
illegal lengths to obtain media without having to
pay for it.

5. Introduction
● Created by 19- year-old
Shawn Fanning in 1999.
● Napster is an application
that gives individuals
access to one another’s
MP3 files by creating a
unique file-sharing system
via the internet.

6. Introduction (Cont.)
● Napster lets users
view and download
the contents of MP3
directories from
other Napster users’
hard drives.
● Not all Napster users
are online at the same
time; therefore, what you
may find one day, may
not be there the next.
● Napster lets users play
music whenever and
wherever they wanted.

7. Background
● Napster used a unique
type of file-sharing
known as peer-to-peer
(P2P) networking. In this
model, users can
download files straight
from another user’s
hard-drive, as opposed
to through a server.
● A proposed legislation
known as the “Peer to
Peer Piracy Prevention
Act”
● Sought to allow the record
industry to be able to
monitor individual’s PCs
in search of illegally
downloaded music.

8. Peer-to-Peer Networking

9. Background (Cont.)
● Artists that spoke out about Napster include: Garth
Brooks, Elton John, Dr. Dre, and Metallica.
● Some of whom, sought legal action against Napster.
● Outside of the music industry, the Motion Picture
Association of America, Music Producers Guild, NBA,
and MLB also rallied against Napster.

10. Significance
● At Napster highest peak
they had approximately
70- 80 million users
when it was trending.
● More recently, Napster
has influenced popular
(legal) services like
Pandora and Spotify.
● In the New York Times
it was labeled the
“culture of the free”
because people can
take thousands and
thousands of songs for
free and pass it onto
their friends.

11. Significance (Cont.)
● Eventually napster started going
downhill because it was spreading
fast and the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA)
took them to court for copyright
infringement in 2001.
● Napster appealed to teenagers in
high school and young adults in
college.

12. Counterpoint/ alternative perspective
● Websites such as Napster and Limewire were not as liked as
some thought that it was.
● Napster is not a good artifact it may seem good in the
beginning, since people can get free music, however it may
leave issues to ones computer
● Napster stole from the artist and musicians

13. (continued)
● Artist don’t get paid for the songs on Napster and they don't
profit from the hard work that they do.
● The people who get music from Napster are breaking the law
by downloading music illegally.
● Napster also leaked music from musicians before the band
was done with the song
● Broke the law of copyright

14. Work Cited
Downloaded. Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
"Introduction to Internet Piracy: At Issue." Internet Piracy. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,
2005. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Apr. 2015
Paulson, Ken. "Real Cost of 'Free' Downloads." USA TODAYAug 21 2012. ProQuest. Web. 27 Apr. 2015 .
Jeff Tyson. “How the Old Napster Worked” http://computer.howstuffworks.com/napster.htm Web. April 30
2015. Article.
“What is Napster?” https://help.napster.com/entries/23782727-What-is-Napster- Web. April 29 2015.
Article.

15. Works Cited (Cont.)
Haberman, Clyde. "Grappling With the ‘Culture of Free’ in Napster’s Aftermath." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 07 Dec. 2014. Web. 28 April 2015.
Harris, Mark. “Napster History – A Look Back in Time at the Napster Music Service.” N.p., n.d. Web. 30 April
2015.
Sang Hoo Bae, Jay Pil Choi. “A model of piracy, Information Economics and Policy”, Volume 18, Issue 3,
September 2006, Pages 303-320, ISSN 0167-6245, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2006.02.002.
Green, Matthew. "Napster Opens Pandora's Box: Examining How File-Sharing Services Threaten the
Enforcement of Copyright on the Internet." Ohio St. LJ 63 (2002): 799. HeinOnline. Web. 2 May 2015.
<http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/groups/oslj/files/2012/03/63.2.green_.pdf>.