One of the many purposes of the Internet, since its inception, has been to share data. Email, in many ways, is just a way of sharing data. So when 19-year-old Shawn Fanning had the clever idea to share music files, it seemed fitting. If someone wanted to search for a picture of a dog on the Internet and then send that picture to their mother, they had that ability. Fanning assessed that there should be a place to go on the Internet to search for music files that you can then share with others. The idea behind it appears innocent enough, but this seemingly small idea from a college student would turn into one of the most heated copyright debates of all time.
The most important aspect to understand about this idea, which Fanning turned into a service called Napster in 1999, is that it was free. Users would download a program and share MP3 files with others who also had downloaded the program. This type of system is called peer-to-peer. Napster, however, was not completely peer-to-peer in that I maintained a central server with an inventory of the connections and goings-on, but it was the first service to popularize the peer-to-peer system.
After being sued by the band Metallica in 2000, followed by several other musicians and a couple recording companies, Napster and Fanning were found guilty in District Court of copyright infringement. Napster was forced to shut down its services shortly after. Interestingly, in the ensuing months after the charges were brought, the amount of users escalated. Ten months after the RIAA filed suit, there were 32 million Napster users. At its height, the membership was nearly 70 million.
Napster filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Today Napster operates as a for-pay music service. Best Buy has since purchased it. The rise and fall of Napster took only two years, but it has likely changed the music industry forever.