Hey there, it's Fred! Today and tomorrow we'll be talking about some older methods of internet piracy, starting with the grandfather of the piracy debate:
Napster
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| Napster's website today |
Napster is one of the most infamous internet success stories of all time. In 1999, Napster was launched by a college dropout who was dissatisfied with the available options for downloading media over the internet. He created a service that was organized around a central server that shared music files. Napster became extremely popular very quickly; at its peak, 80 million people were using its services. The trouble was, those people were using Napster for sharing copyrighted material in vast quantities. The music industry got wind of this development, and RIAA sued it for $20 billion. Just like the dinosaurs, Napster went extinct.
...or did it? Today, the Napster website is still active, but it has been acquired by Rhapsody, and it is now used as an extension of Rhapsody's social network. Still, its name has joined the pantheon of the great internet piracy sites, and its death kicked off the internet piracy debate and spawned dozens of related sites such as Kazaa and Grokster. We'll talk more about those two tomorrow. In the meantime, you might want to check out this article, this article, and this article if you're interested in more information about the history of Napster. Until next time!
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