Abstract: This article discusses the ethical and legal issues of sharing MP3 music files online. The technology exists to effectively distribute music to consumers, and the recording industry is trying to stop this practice because it fears losing revenue. Many artists, whose music is shared, support the technology. By working together, online file sharing companies and the recording industry could revolutionize the way music is delivered to consumers. Everyone who uses the Internet has heard of a way to exchange MP3 files back and forth. Many people who don't even use the Internet have heard of Napster, Scour, Aimster, Gnutella, etc. Why? Napster has gained a lot of notoriety lately, but how did a computer program written by a teenager become so popular? This program for college dropouts makes it very easy to listen to your favorite music for free, and this has thrown the recording industry into an uproar as many artists are in favor of Napster.7 In the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, the government of the United States declared it legal. share music and record it, as long as it is not used for commercial purposes or to make profit. The recording industry could benefit from Napster's distribution model, and Napster could benefit from royalties from major record labels. Both the recording industry and Napster could benefit from the collaboration by revolutionizing the way music is distributed to consumers. Napster, which emerged in late 1999, is a relatively new Internet service that could be considered a "listen before you buy" service. Napster was developed by an eighteen-year-old college freshman, Shawn Fanning, as a way to share files over the Internet, particularly MP3 digital music files. The old way of getting music by going to the store and buying a CD before listening to all the songs on it is long gone. The new way to buy music is to listen to all the songs on the CD before purchasing it. This is also done by most large retail chains as they allow you to listen to the latest music on sale in their store. Online music stores also allow you to listen to some songs from the album before purchasing it over the Internet. However, the difference here is that with Napster the music can be played over and over again and the recording industry claims that this would be a reason not to purchase the album as it is already stored on the hard drive.