Music Mp3 S Kazaa' title='Music Mp3 S Kazaa' />As filesharing sites continue to come under attack from the RIAA, more music fans are using third party sites to convert the audio from YouTube to mp3 formats. Napster Wikipedia. Napster was the name given to two music focused online services. It was founded as a pioneering peer to peer P2. P file sharing. Internet service that emphasized sharing digital audio files, typically audio songs, encoded in MP3 format. Rhapsody is now Napster. Same digital music service. Stream the music you want and download your favorite songs to listen offline. 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 Buy1 on December 1, 2. Later companies and projects successfully followed its P2. P file sharing example such as Gnutella, Freenet, Kazaa, Bear. Share, and many others. Music Mp3 S Kazaa' title='Music Mp3 S Kazaa' />However, some services, like Lime. Wire, Scour, Grokster, Madster, and e. Donkey. 20. 00, were brought down or changed due to copyright issues. Napster was founded by Shawn Fanning, John Fanning,citation needed and Sean Parker. Initially, Napster was envisioned as an independent peer to peer file sharing service by Shawn Fanning. The service operated between June 1. XqNSsp9RYl8/TedZC3ccSsI/AAAAAAAAEsk/CUFqJjtU3js/s400/CNET%2BRED%2BSmackdown%2BFeatured%2BMusic%2BCenter%2BFile%2BSharing%2BSmackdown%2BFeatured%2Bon%2BFront%2BPage%2BAug%2B1%2B2001.jpg' alt='Music Mp3 S Kazaa' title='Music Mp3 S Kazaa' />July 2. Its technology allowed people to easily share their MP3 files with other participants. Although the original service was shut down by court order, the Napster brand survived after the companys assets were liquidated and purchased by other companies through bankruptcy proceedings. HistoryeditAlthough there were already networks that facilitated the distribution of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and Usenet, Napster specialized in MP3 files of music and a user friendly interface. At its peak the Napster service had about 8. Napster made it relatively easy for music enthusiasts to download copies of songs that were otherwise difficult to obtain, such as older songs, unreleased recordings, and songs from concert bootleg recordings. High speed networks in college dormitories became overloaded, with as much as 6. MP3 file transfers. Anthem Arizona Business License. Many colleges blocked its use for this reason,1. The ease of downloading individual songs facilitated by Napster and later services is often credited with ushering in the end of the Album Era in popular music, which focused on the release of albums of songs by bands and artists. Macintosh versionedit. Napster running under Mac OS 9 in March 2. The service and software program began as Windows only. However, in 2. 00. Black Hole Media wrote a Macintosh client called Macster. Macster was later bought by Napster and designated the official Mac Napster client Napster for the Mac, at which point the Macster name was discontinued. Even before the acquisition of Macster, the Macintosh community had a variety of independently developed Napster clients. The most notable was the open source client called Mac. Star, released by Squirrel Software in early 2. Rapster, released by Overcaster Family in Brazil. The release of Mac. Stars source code paved the way for third party Napster clients across all computing platforms, giving users advertisement free music distribution options. Legal challengeseditHeavy metal band Metallica discovered a demo of their song I Disappear had been circulating across the network before it was released. This led to it being played on several radio stations across the United States and alerted Metallica that their entire back catalogue of studio material was also available. On March 1. 3, 2. Napster. A month later, rapper and producer Dr. Dre, who shared a litigator and legal firm with Metallica, filed a similar lawsuit after Napster refused his written request to remove his works from its service. Separately, Metallica and Dr. Dre later delivered to Napster thousands of usernames of people whom they believed were pirating their songs. In March 2. 00. 1, Napster settled both suits, after being shut down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a separate lawsuit from several major record labels see below. In 2. 00. 0, Madonnas single Music was leaked out onto the web and Napster prior to its commercial release, causing widespread media coverage. Verified Napster use peaked with 2. February 2. 00. 1. In 2. 00. 0, the American musical recording company A M Records along with several other recording companies, through the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA, sued Napster A M Records, Inc. Napster, Inc. on grounds of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act DMCA. Napster was faced with the following allegations from the music industry That its users were directly violating the plaintiffs copyrights. That Napster was responsible for contributory infringement of the plaintiffs copyrights. That Napster was responsible for vicarious infringement of the plaintiffs copyrights. Napster lost the case in the District Court but then appealed to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Although it was clear that Napster could have commercially significant non infringing uses, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Courts decision. Immediately after, the District Court commanded Napster to keep track of the activities of its network and to restrict access to infringing material when informed of that materials location. Napster wasnt able to comply and thus had to close down its service in July 2. In 2. 00. 2, Napster announced that it was bankrupt and sold its assets to a third party. Promotional poweredit. Napster peaked in February 2. Along with the accusations that Napster was hurting the sales of the record industry, there were those who felt just the opposite, that file trading on Napster stimulated, rather than hurt, sales. Some evidence may have come in July 2. English rock band Radioheads album Kid A found their way to Napster three months before the albums release. Unlike Madonna, Dr. Dre or Metallica, Radiohead had never hit the top 2. US. Furthermore, Kid A was an album without any singles released, and received relatively little radio airplay. By the time of the albums release, the album was estimated to have been downloaded for free by millions of people worldwide, and in October 2. Kid A captured the number one spot on the Billboard 2. According to Richard Menta of MP3 Newswire,2. Napster in this instance was isolated from other elements that could be credited for driving sales, and the albums unexpected success suggested that Napster was a good promotional tool for music. Since 2. 00. 0, many musical artists, particularly those not signed to major labels and without access to traditional mass media outlets such as radio and television, have said that Napster and successive Internet file sharing networks have helped get their music heard, spread word of mouth, and may have improved their sales in the long termcitation needed. One such musician to publicly defend Napster as a promotional tool for independent artists was Dj xealot, who became directly involved in the 2. A M Records Lawsuit. Chuck D from Public Enemy also came out and publicly supported Napster. LawsuiteditNapsters facilitation of transfer of copyrighted material raised the ire of the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA, which almost immediatelyon December 7, 1. The service would only get bigger as the trial, meant to shut down Napster, also gave it a great deal of publicity. Soon millions of users, many of whom were college students, flocked to it. After a failed appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court, an injunction was issued on March 5, 2.