Dec. 7, 1999 – A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
From Wired’s This Day in Tech:
1999: The Recording Industry Association of America sues Napster, the online, peer-to-peer file sharing service that’s allowing millions of computer users to score free, copyright music. The rules are about to change.
Napster founder Shawn Fanning won rock-star celebrity with the service. But music-industry heads were spinning.
So, the RIAA sued Napster and all of its financial backers in federal court in San Francisco. The outcome eventually defined the rules of online, peer-to-peer file sharing networks.
The case began 10 years ago today and dragged on for almost eight years.
A federal judge and an appeals court in San Francisco both ruled in 2002 that Napster was liable for contributory or vicarious copyright violations, because it was allowing millions of users to download music for free. Napster eventually shut down and went bankrupt, later re-emerging as a legitimate, online music service.
