Departments
Napster and other Free Exchange Services
Remember Napster? Below is an excerpt from a newspaper article about the growth of file-exchanging services in Japan.
"Napster and other Free Exchange Services"
a.
“The Japan Record Association and the Computer Software Copyright Association announced the results of a survey which indicates that the number of users in Japan of internet-based services for the free exchange of music, etc. (as represented by the U.S. company, Napster), is upwards of 1 million users.”
b.
“Because the country has lagged in the provision of high speed internet equipment, the number of users of such services in Japan has been purported to be extremely small compared to other major countries. However, both associations found that the services were “more widespread than imagined” in Japan. Copyright violations have spurred the consideration of warnings and criminal charges to be filed against the illegal sites.”
c.
“According to the joint survey carried out by the two associations in May, 560 out of 10,425 valid respondents, or 5.4% reported having used such services. Simply extrapolating from Japan’s internet population in May, they calculated that around 1 million people are using the services.”
Vocabulary:
むりょうこうかん
無料交換
“free exchange”
きょうかい
協会
“association”
ちょさくけん
著作権
“copyright”
りようしゃ
利用者
“user”
こうそくネット
高速ネット
“high-speed network”
せいび
整備
“equipment”
しゅようこく
主要国
“major country”
（きょくたん）に
極端に
“extremely”
（そうぞういじょう）に
想像以上に
“more than imagined”
（ふきゅう）する
普及する
“to spread, be diffused”
