Napster

The Napster cat logo was used intermittently from 1999-2011.

Napster, was a free peer-to-peer file sharing sharing program created in 1999 by co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. At its peak in the early 2000's the site had over 20 million users, the majority of which were college students. Napster was the first file sharing software in which users could download music from other users, rather than from a central computer. Napster was the target of many copyright infringement lawsuits from artists, record labels, and others in the music industry. The legal controversy eventually led to the downfall of the P2P file sharing software which was court-ordered to shut down immediately in 2001.

History

Screenshot of Napster's download window.

Napster was created by Shawn Fanning in his dorm room at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Fanning was unhappy with the inconvenience of finding downloadable music online, and decided to improve the system. He wanted a program capable of sharing music with his friends. Fanning and his friend Sean Parker raised $50,000 in investments and launched a beta version of their software in June 1999. Over the next twelve months the program gained tens of millions of users worldwide and was considered one of the fastest growing web applications of its time.

Use

Napster was a unique way of distributing MP3 files because the songs lived on users' machines, rather than being stored on a central computer; this is known as peer-to-peer sharing (P2P). Users were able to download songs via the internet; users could search for songs they wanted to download, and the central server would look for them on the machines of those who were logged in. When a match was found, the user's computer was alerted of where to find the file, and a list was then generated in the users' Winder after the server replied showing that the song that could be downloaded. After downloading, the user's computer would be disconnected from the host.

Ethical Issues

In 2001, due to Napster's rapid growth, members the of the Recording Industry Association of America took notice of copyright infringement on the site. Many artists, through the RIAA, sued Fanning and his team for facilitating free trade of illicit music files, a direct violation of Copyright law. It was estimated that over 2.79 billion songs were illegally transferred during Napster's peak month, February 2001. Napster argued that because the music files were never in their own possession, and rather transferred directly between users, that Napster had no legal responsibility, which led to the debate about the criminality of Napster users.

Users

Although it is clear that Napster's services raises ethical questions about copyright infringement, ultimately, users are ultimately responsible for how they use the service, specifically in utilizing Napster to illegally exchange copyrighted media. None of the material exchanged on Napster's site was held on a server owned by the company, meaning that Napster cannot be blamed for doing anything illegal. Napster believed that it was only acts as a forum for exchange, and thus could not be held liable for it's users' illegal exchange of information. This argument may keep Napster from legal punishment, although the site didn't discourage the illegal sharing of files. .

Bertelsmann Acquisition and Shutdown

In 2001, Bertelsmann, a German media company, partnered with Napster to transform the site into a membership-based music catalog. Bertelsmann promised a membership-based distribution system that would pay money to artists, however, the lawsuit continued. In July 2001, the The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction for Napster to immediately shutdown in an attempt to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on its network. In the site's last days, usage spiked 71% as users tried to get as much music as possible before the shutdown.

The Transformation of Napster

From 2001-2011 Napster went through many acquisitions and in an attempt make changes to the software that would allow users to share things legally.

September 2001 - Napster settles its suits against the RIAA and agrees to pay $26 million in damage for all previously traded music and a down payment of $10 million dollars for future royalties.

September 3, 2002 - Napster files for bankruptcy and is forced to liquidate all assets.

2003 - Napster is bought by Roxio, a software company that produces digital media products. Roxio acquired Napster through a bankruptcy auction and intended to relaunch the Napster as a digital retail music distributor, similar to iTunes

2008 - Best Buy, the consumer electronics superstore, agrees to pay $121 million to Roxio for Napster to compete with then rival Circuit City.

October 2011 - Best Buy no longer wants to be a part of the crowded digital music industry and sells the Napster brand to Rhapsody. Though Rhapsody had no intention to continue Napster, they purchased it for its intellectual property and notoriety. Napster was absorbed into the Rhapsody brand and is currently operating under the Rhapsody name.

Napster in Popular Culture

Several books document the experiences of people working at Napster, including: Joseph Menn's Napster biography, All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster, John Alderman's Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3, and the New Pioneers of Music, and Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. Parodies of Napster references have also been seen in the popular television shows Futurama and South Park, as well as in the music of Tom Smith and Johnny Crass. Additionally, Producer/Director/Actor Eli Roth made a small film with a parodying the company, called "Snackster". The 2010 film The Social Network features Napster founder Sean Parker, as well as his role in the rise of the popular website Facebook.

Parker and Metallica Partner Up

On December 6th, Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Sean Parker, have ended a feud that dating back to Napster's most popular years. Ulrich was one of the most outspoken artists about Napster's service and filed a lawsuit against the pioneering peer-to-peer service. The two men shared the stage at a Spotify event along with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Parker is a Spotify investor and board member. Ulrich and Parker share a love of Spotify and Ulrich announced that Metallica is now offering its catalog on the service. The two men both spoke on stage at the event about their previous differences regarding Napster. "We wanted music to be free as in freedom, not for free," said Parker, who blamed the press for twisting Napster's mission.

See Also

• 8tracks
• Bandcamp
• Digital Piracy
• File Sharing
• iTunes Store
• Kazaa
• Limewire
• Pandora
• Rhapsody
• Sampling (hip hop)

References

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