Shawn Fanning, a nineteen-year-old college drop out, found himself at the center of one of the biggest controversies over piracy and copyrighted material in America’s history. Napster was incorporated in May of 1999. Fanning’s idea came to mind while a freshman a

Napster is a program that anyone can use. The program is user friendly and gives the user access to free music. Surprisingly some music musicians are in favor of this program and don’t want it shut down. “It’s great. Whatever gets the music around. The record labels will worry about that, and I’ll worry about the music” Neil Young says (Levey 50). With great supporters like Neil Young, there may be a future for the file-sharing program. In January of 2001, Dave Matthews Band gave Napster permission to exchange their songs with the labels permission (Roy 4). This is an example of a major record company taking a loss to keep the band under their name in order to produce more revenue. There are only a handful of supporters that could actually make a difference in the outcome of this case.

t Boston’s, Northeastern University. His vision was a program that transforms computers into servers for the exchange of MP3 music files worldwide via the Internet (Business week, 2000). After Fanning made Napster such a success, Business Week Magazine chose him along with others to have an article written about their success. Of all the VIP’s chosen, Fanning looked like a child, “This is weird, really weird,” Fanning, said (Business Week, 2000). With Napster, one can find just about any music file possible. Universities have blocked the program along with other institutions because of musicians threatening to file suit. There are many people who want Napster to be illegal although some artists look at the program as a new way of getting people to listen new music. The program makes no money yet, but the RIAA and musicians want the program to cease (Business Week, 2000). Shawn Fanning created Napster, the program that started all MP3 sharing.

Napster soon teams up with Bertelsmann (BMG), the German based media-publishing giant that currently has a lawsuit against Napster (Cohen 50.) When teamed up together, Napster hopes to become a membership-based service. Creating an alliance with the media giant will drop the curre

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