History of Computers - Napster
Page created by Jacob Brown.
Contents
Introduction
Napster was a file-sharing network that allowed users to download MP3 files through peer-to-peer (P2P) downloads. At its peak, it had gained over 50 million users, making it the first major program used to download music.
Overview
Napster was founded on June 1, 1999 by then-teenagers Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. Napster could be used to download almost any music for free, drawing both a massive user base and a hailstorm of lawsuits. Within its first year, it had gained 20 million users; this figure tripled by the time Napster was taken down. [1] By 2000, Napster was targeted with a series of lawsuits from record labels and artists. The main lawsuit, backed up by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and world-famous artists Metallica and Dr. Dre, resulted in a 2001 decision that Napster had knowledge of direct copyright infringement hosted by its service.[2] As a result, Napster was forced to shut down hosting of all non-copyrighted material on its site; it shut down within the year.[3][4] In its second incarnation, Napster returned as a fully licensed for-pay service in 2003 until its purchase in 2011 by music service Rhapsody.[5]
Significance
Napster was the catalyst of the digital revolution of the music industry. Before Napster, music was primarily shared digitally with inconvenient and slow e-mail attachments; Napster made it simple for music fans to download songs relatively quickly.[6] This development was followed by the legal service iTunes, which took advantage of the spread of computers to make music available for digital purchase. Additionally, Napster revolutionized peer-to-peer technology. Services such as Gnutella and Limewire followed Napster in the field of music; BitTorrent made P2P downloads faster and allowed for the sharing of movies and video games. [7] Now, with programs such as Acestream, even live video can be shared with the technology pioneered by Napster.[8]
Links
- ↑ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/06/15-years-after-napster-how-the-music-service-changed-the-industry.html
- ↑ http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98767&page=1
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/business/napster-decision-overview-appellate-judges-back-limitations-copying-music.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
- ↑ http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/22380/requiem_napster/
- ↑ http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/rhapsody-to-acquire-napster-in-deal-with-best-buy/
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/2009/12/21/121690908/napster-the-file-sharing-service-that-started-it-all
- ↑ https://www.wired.com/2005/01/bittorrent-2/
- ↑ http://info.acestream.org/#/about/acestream
