LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Joe George from Manitowoc, Wisconsin asks: How do MP3s work?</s>JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, MP3 really is a technical standard, and it refers to a computer file, like any other computer file -- like a word file, or a picture file -- but this one stores an audio signal. Most usually it's music. MP3 has been in the news because we've heard about Napster and the controversy about swapping these files. What MP3 does is it takes a large audio file and compresses it. It takes out the stuff that we really can't hear, so it makes it about one-twelfth of the original size, and that makes it easier to handle -- smaller to store in your computer, smaller to move over the Internet, if you're exchanging it or downloading it. So it's just a more efficient way of using and storing audio files.
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