Media Tracker is a new piece of software developed by the music recording industry, including the RIAA, in attempts to abolish internet music piracy. This software scans many file-sharing sources, including Napster, and collects details about users downloading illegal music. This information includes the songs you download, your ip address, and your internet service provider. The software can also scan newsgroups and IRC channels for illegal distrobution as well. Supposedly, the information collected will be sent to the users' internet service providers, who will in turn take action against the user. This forces ISPs to get involved in the copyright violation scheme, thus dispersing the load upon many companies, instead of being burdened upon the RIAA. Does this mean that we won't be able to exchange mp3s over Napster and other file-sharing services? Maybe. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out...

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