About Napster
Napster is a set of three music-focused online services. It was founded in 1999 as a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing Internet software that emphasized sharing digital audio files, typically audio songs, encoded in MP3 format. As the software became popular, the company ran into legal difficulties over copyright infringement. It ceased operations and was eventually acquired by Roxio . In its second incarnation, Napster became an online music store until it was acquired by Rhapsody from Best Buy[1] on December 1, 2011.
Napster was founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker.[2] Initially, Napster was envisioned by Fanning as an independent peer-to-peer file sharing service. The service operated between June 1999 and July 2001.[3] Its technology allowed people to easily share their MP3 files with other participants.[4] Although the original service was shut down by court order, the Napster brand survived after the company's assets were liquidated and purchased by other companies through bankruptcy proceedings.[5]
For those who don’t remember, Napster was a popular peer-to-peer file sharing network that launched in 1999. It had an amazingly large fan-base of music lovers who shared mp3s.
However, two years later the company was involved in a joint lawsuit filed by various record companies.
They didn’t like the large-scale distribution of their music for free, and so sued the company for infringement on their intellectual property. This is what makes this case one of the most famous copyright infringement cases in history.
The court ruled against Napster and the company was forced to shut down the site after making a public apology and paying $26m in damages. It was their lack of effort to reduce infringement, mixed with the fact that the company financially benefitted from it that set the decision in stone.
About Sean Parker
Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the file-sharing computer service Napster, and serving as the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also co-founded Plaxo, Causes, Airtime.com, and Brigade, an online platform for civic engagement. [4][5][6][7][8][9] He is the founder and chairman of the Parker Foundation, which focuses on life sciences, global public health, and civic engagement.[10] On the Forbes 2016 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion.[11]
Parker was born in Herndon, Virginia, to Diane Parker, a TV advertising broker, and Bruce Parker, a U.S. government oceanographer and Chief Scientist at NOAA. [4][5][12][13] When Parker was seven, his father taught him how to program on an Atari 800.[4] Parker's father, who put his family before his entrepreneurial dreams, told Parker "if you are going to take risks, take them early before you have a family."[14] As a teenager, Parker's hobbies were hacking and programming.[5] One night, while hacking into the network of a Fortune 500 company, Parker was unable to log out after his father confiscated his computer keyboard. [5] Because his IP address was exposed, F.B.I. agents tracked down the 16-year-old.[5] Since Parker was under 18, he was sentenced to community service.[5]
