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Music Piracy

By Ronit

  • Release of Napster

    Release of Napster
    Release of Napster as a means to easily search and share files on a peer-to-peer network without the need of using a chat or search engine like IRC or Lycos. Quickly becoming the source for the majority of online music piracy and quite possibly the reason for the demise of audio CD's and retail record stores.

  • RIAA lawsuit causes massive increase in user base.

    Thanks to the publicity given to Napster because of the high profile lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America, resulting in millions of new users signing up for the service; most of which were college students.

  • Metallica Lawsuit.

    Metallica discovered that a demo of the song "I Disappear", which was set to be released with the "Mission: Impossible II" soundtrack, was being played on the radio. Metallica was able to trace the source of the leak back to a file on Napster's peer-to-peer file-sharing network. It was also discovered that the bands entire catalogue was available for free download. Metallica argued that Napster was enabling users to exchange copyrighted MP3 files.

  • Dr. DRE Joins the lawsuit.

    In a written request to Napster, Dr. DRE asked Napster to stop sharing his songs. After no efforts were made towards stopping the piracy, Dr. DRE joined the lawsuit along with Metallica against Napster.

  • A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster.

    Quite possibly the lawsuit that fell the giant called Napster, this lawsuit was filed by 18 different record labels. The lawsuit stated that:
    1. Napsters users were directly infringing the plaintiffs' copyrights.
    2. That Napster was liable for contributory infringement of the plaintiffs' copyrights.
    3. That Napster was liable for vicarious infringement of the plaintiffs' copyrights.

  • Napster shuts down.

    In a final court ruling, Napster is forced to shut down after they fail to follow a court order to stop the sharing of copyright material on their network.

  • Napster files for Ch:7 bankruptcy.

    After a failed attempt at being aquired by a German media firm, Napster was forced to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and liquify all of it's assets in order to pay off the fines from all the lawsuits filed against the company.

  • Lowpoint of the music industry.

    According to the RIAA website, the music industry was at its peak in 1999, the same year Napster was released with sales of $14.6 billion. 10 years later the music industry has gone down 47% with sales totaling to $7.7 billion. Napster was around for 2 short years but even almost a decade later, the trend for downloading music illegally that it started still continues to affect the industry.