Napsters Revolution - Business Law Essay Example

Management and identification of risks will often require allocation of resources to help manage the planning process of a business. Usually, a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is considered as a viable option when encountering the potential issues involved in a business. The reason for this is because the analysis serves an important role in overviewing the kind of component or segment associated with a particular business. Furthermore, a resource inventory may also be required to categorize the individuals who will be involved to assist in managing the risk as well as the necessary tools. Organizations tend to rely on resources as a mean of securing any loss or damage that may occur as a result of security measures. This study aims at identifying some of the legal and moral issues involved in Napster Incorporation as well as indicating and differentiating the systematic, corporate and individual issues in the case.

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In the case of Napsters Revolution, the legal issues involved relate to product liability, financial and contractual risks and successional risks. Product liability relates to the placing of defective products by the manufacturer for purposes of selling to the consumer. On the other hand, risk management in an organization plays a vital role in conducting the required assessment and priority which may impact the organization. The products that Napster Inc. produces are music files in an MP3 format which can be shared between different users who may discover each other through the company's website. However, the risk that was involved regarding product liability included distribution of copyrighted music that was owned by musicians as well as other specific companies. Financial and contractual risk also became a matter of concern about the company's welfare.

According to the lawsuit that was filed, Napster was to remove all songs contained on its website. The lawsuit was an actual threat to the company's sales had reached over 500 million Dollars annually. Another legal issue that contributes to Napster's case is a successional risk. The fact that Napster copy pirated music with no payment guaranteed for the music led to the sudden lawsuit that it was filed against it. The company was requested to remove all its URLs from the website and all the referenced materials. As a result, other companies with the same ideology but with a different operation emerged. 'Gnutella' is one of the specified examples.

Certain business ethics such as customer service integrity, personal integrity, and product integrity determine the state of morality in an organization. The case of Napsters Incorporation is concerned with normative ethics. Normative ethics tend to focus on certain ethical actions including fairness, honesty, and dignity among others which are considered reasonable by giving certain directions to what may seem morally right or wrong. For instance, normative ethics can be applied in business organizations to facilitate the production of goods and services. In other words, business ethics does not focus only on its application but also considers other factors such as an assortment of analytical conclusions. In general, business policies, institutions, and behavior play a vital role in determining what kind of moral standard a business should portray.

Napsters Incorporation has two issues concerning morality about its case. First, musicians and music companies have filed lawsuits and claim that it distributes copies of copyrighted music without seeking approval from them. This kind of action led to the argument that individuals often have their right regarding what kind of music they purchase to share with others. Additionally, through a partnership, the company was able to negotiate certain terms with the music companies. This agreement facilitated its relationship with the music companies by concluding that they would pay a certain annual fee to withdraw from the lawsuit.

Ethical business practices often have certain differences regarding their application. On the contrary, the ethical dilemmas that a business might encounter cannot be fully indicated by the law. For instance, an issue might be considered as legal while, on the other hand, it is unethical. Legal practices are associated with the processes and policies that are involved in acting by the law. The practice may include various factors such as honesty and transparency. Nevertheless, ethical practices are issues which usually involve certain efforts that can be applied to meet certain expectations of stakeholders for various activities carried out in businesses.

In particular, legal issues are validated due to the inherent legal requirement associated with the company's actions and behavioral adaptations. The validation usually involves contracted lawyers or staffs who assure that the demands of business and industry-related laws are met by the considerations. Ethical issues, on the other hand, are composed of choices which are considered technical such as environmental actions. For example, many businesses often tend to be involved in recycling and reuse of environmental products for purposes which might relate to ethics to ensure public and customer welfare.

Although legal and ethical practices might be different to each other in some way, they often tend to relate to each other regarding issues and social situations. The two practices can be enforced to any particular situation that mostly involves the private or public as well as in professional activities. The law is specifically carried out by legal means which complies with all equipment, processes, procedures, practices, languages, and cultures among others. The reason for the existence of laws is due to the ethical conducts since it is comprised of moral standards which in turn determine the rightness or wrongness of an act or conduct.

Corporate issues in business ethics are questions that may arise in matters which involve ethical procedures. These questions may be associated with a particular organization. In particular, the questions raised might be concerned about the kind of morality the business activities represent, policies that are involved regarding these activities, practices that might be considered as ethical as well as the structure of the organization as a whole. In Napster's Inc. case, the company's morality was questioned by musicians and music companies who represent the musicians whether it was legally right for them to distribute copies without seeking their approval.

Individual issues in business ethics are questions that may arise about a specific person or specific people which may involve certain ethical procedures within a company. The specific questions that may arise within a company often tend to address the moral standards of the process involved in decision making, the actions which a business may depict and the specific character that a certain individual portrays. For example, whether the individuals who were using the Napster software that allowed them to share music through the internet was justified according to moral standards.

The main factors that distinguish individual issues and corporate issues from each other include health and safety, technology, transparency as well as fair working conditions. For instance, to balance the expense control, a company must always consider the health and safety of its employees. Furthermore, due to the recent advancements in technology, companies must coordinate between the privacy and freedom that might be associated with its employees. Also, transparency for organizations often includes certain traits such as communicating messages. For messages to be effective, misinterpretation usually is avoided at all cost to ensure clear intentions that a company might represent. Finally, the kind of working conditions that a company has can often have an impact regarding its productivity. Companies are required to have fair working conditions for its workers for purposes of securing their production rates.

Overall, when establishing a company, certain legal and ethical issues should be considered to determine its success. A legal issue often involves certain procedures which are applied according to what the law reinforces. On the other hand, a moral issue in business ethics regards a normative study as the potential approach towards issues related to moral conduct. Corporate and individual issues differ in various ways in matters considering a company and employee safety. Organizations together with its employees tend to benefit from each other mutually. The reason for this is because a company will often provide certain measurements to secure the safety of the employees. These may include factors such as health and fair working conditions among others.