by Pete Capra 14:50, 21 Oct 2004 (EST)
Napster is arguably the most infamous P2P file sharing network to date. Originally designed to allow college users to share MP3 files they had on their computers, Napster, soon became a network of several million users swapping MP3 files across the internet.
Shawn Fanning, a student at Northeastern University, dropped out of college in 1999 to design a P2P network that would allow file sharing on a massive scale because he was sick of getting broken links while downloading music. The original Napster had one main design goal – to combine the functionality and features of advanced search engines, file-sharing systems and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) where users could send messages to each other in real time. Napster was solely focussed on the sharing and distribution of MP3 files.
Napster worked using a network which is now known as Hybrid P2P file-sharing – it used a centralised server to catalogue a list of MP3 files, which users were online and which users had what MP3 files. Figure 1.1 outlines how users interacted with the Napster server to share files.
Figure 1.1 Napster Server Model
Shortly after Napster was released as a public download, it was realised that there were serious copyright issues at hand. The success of this network meant that a Napster user in could buy a record on it’s release date in the USA, copy the entire CD to their computer in MP3 format and someone in Australia could download the whole album and burn it to CD before it was even released in Australia. Not only could millions of people listen to a record weeks before it was intended to be released, but these users were not paying for the music. This meant that musicians and recording companies were not receiving any payment for their work.
While copyright battles raged with major record labels, independent artists saw the potential of this file-sharing phenomenon. New audiences and listeners could now be reached for artists struggling to gain recognition in the music industry.
Napster and its creator, Shawn Fanning, were quickly taken to court by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to resolve the copyright violations. Fanning argued that his was not responsible for the actions of Napster users. RIAA argued back: "We love the idea of using technology to build artist communities, but that's not what Napster is all about. Napster is about facilitating piracy, and trying to build a business on the backs of artists and copyright owners…" The court ruled that Napster was to block the sharing of 250,000 copyrighted songs, which was done using over 1.6 million filenames. RIAA were not satisfied with this decision and in July 2001 once again took Napster to court. This time Napster and all its servers were shutdown, effectively ending the use of the P2P network.
A couple of years and several more lawsuits later, Napster was bought out by Roxio Inc. and redeveloped and distributed as Napster 2 - a pay-per-download music service. However, Napster 2 was launched at the same time as Apple iTunes and several other similar services, so it never regained its popularity.
Recording Industry Association of America (2004) “Frequently Asked Questions about Napster and Digital Music� retrieved October 11, 2004 from http://www.riaa.com/news/filings/napster_faq.asp
Napster (2004) “What is Napster?� retrieved October 15, 2004 from http://www.napster.com/what_is_napster.html
How Stuff Works (2004) “How the old Napster worked� retrieved October 16, 2004 from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/napster.htm
Wikipedia (2004) “Napster� retrieved October 15, 2004 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster
Open P2P (2001) “alt.napster - Our Roundup of Napster Alternatives� retrieved October 15, 2004 from http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/04/09/filesharing.html
Black, J. (2003) Rock and Pop Timeline, UK: Backbeat. ISBN 1871547717
P2P File Sharing Networks
Gnutella
Morpheus
BearShare
Kazaa
Pete Capra 11:33, 21 Oct 2004 (EST)
