The explosion of media piracy was galvanized by the invention of the MP3 format back in 1993. This format allowed the copying of CDs to computer devices, from which pirate CD replicas could then be produced. The MP3 format wasn't used as widely for piracy until the Napster website opened in 1999. This highly publicized site allowed users to trade and download musical files. Though Napster was eventually closed after the recording industry brought a number of lawsuits against it, a variety of peer-to-peer file services has since sprung up across the Net, making it easy to download media files illegally.
Media piracy undermines the film and music industry, and adversely affects the sales of legal copies of media. Since users can get music for free via the Internet, for example, global sales of music fell by $1.5 billion in 2010, according to the Guardian newspaper. This decline in sales has consequences for those involved in the music industry. Artists may find themselves unable to continue to produce media if they can't earn as much from it, while sales declines lead to job losses among record companies.
In the United States, as in many countries around the world, breaking copyright on media is illegal. If an individual makes a copy of a media product, whether an MP3 file or a CD track, he's breaking the law unless he's doing so purely for his own use. Even burning tracks onto a rewritable CD for a friend is technically prohibited. Likewise, heading onto the Internet to download a file made available by a peer-to-peer network is also illegal.
If an individual breaks federal law regarding media piracy, she is liable to end up in court. Even a first-time offender can end up paying as much as $250,000 in fines, or face a maximum five years in jail. Copyright holders, like the Recording Industry Association of America, also have the ability to sue individuals, and can potentially be awarded as much as $150,000 for every copyrighted file distributed illegally.