In memoriam
Napster
Born June 1999. Died 2 July 2001.
Napster passed on 2 July 2001, having lived two years as the first way to share music at scale. Born in June 1999 in a dormitory, it connected users’ folders. Search, download, share. At its peak it claimed eighty million users. Metallica sued. The Recording Industry Association of America sued. A judge ordered it to block copyrighted material. Napster could not achieve one hundred percent compliance. The company voluntarily shut down on 2 July. A judge ordered it to remain offline. The name survived in various forms. The original did not. He is survived by every service that learned that music ought to be shared, and by the conviction that the law, when it catches up, will follow what users already do.
Napster will remain offline until it can achieve 100% effectiveness in blocking pirated material.
Killed by platform
Mourned by Those who shared music before the law caught up, teenagers who filled hard drives with MP3s, and anyone who remembers when discovery meant searching a folder.
iTunes, which legalized the download; Spotify, which legalized the stream; and the memory of eighty million users who learned that sharing could be a crime.