Napster's assets were eventually acquired by Roxio, and it re-emerged as an online music store commonly known as Napster 2.0. Best Buy later purchased the service and merged it with its Rhapsody streaming service on December 1, 2011.[1] In 2016, the original branding was restored when Rhapsody was renamed Napster. In 2022, the Napster streaming service was acquired by two Web3 companies, Hivemind and Algorand. Jon Vlassopulos was appointed as CEO. [2]

Although 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 80 million registered users.[7] 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, studio recordings, and songs from concert bootleg recordings. Napster paved the way for streaming media services and transformed music into a public good for a brief time.

Music Free Downloading Controversy

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The service and software program began as Windows-only. However, in 2000, 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.[10] 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 MacStar, released by Squirrel Software in early 2000, and Rapster, released by Overcaster Family in Brazil.[11] The release of MacStar's source code paved the way for third-party Napster clients across all computing platforms, giving users advertisement-free music distribution options.

In 2000, 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. v. Napster, Inc.) on grounds of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).[15] Napster was faced with the following allegations from the music industry:

Along with the accusations that Napster was hurting the sales of the record industry, some felt just the opposite, that file trading on Napster stimulated, rather than hurt, sales. Some evidence may have come in July 2000 when tracks from English rock band Radiohead's album Kid A found their way to Napster three months before the album's release. Unlike Madonna, Dr. Dre, or Metallica, Radiohead had never hit the top 20 in the US. Furthermore, Kid A was an album without any singles released, and received relatively little radio airplay. By the time of the album's release, the album was estimated to have been downloaded for free by millions of people worldwide, and in October 2000 Kid A captured the number one spot on the Billboard 200 sales chart in its debut week. According to Richard Menta of MP3 Newswire,[18] the effect of Napster in this instance was isolated from other elements that could be credited for driving sales, and the album's unexpected success suggested that Napster was a good promotional tool for music.

Since 2000, 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 term[citation needed]. One such musician to publicly defend Napster as a promotional tool for independent artists was DJ Xealot, who became directly involved in the 2000 A&M Records Lawsuit.[19] Chuck D from Public Enemy also came out and publicly supported Napster.[20]

On July 11, 2001, Napster shut down its entire network to comply with the injunction. On September 24, 2001, the case was partially settled. Napster agreed to pay music creators and copyright owners a $26 million settlement for past, unauthorized uses of music, and as an advance against future licensing royalties of $10 million. To pay those fees, Napster attempted to convert its free service into a subscription system, and thus traffic to Napster was reduced. A prototype solution was tested in 2002: the Napster 3.0 Alpha, using the ".nap" secure file format from PlayMedia Systems[24] and audio fingerprinting technology licensed from Relatable. Napster 3.0 was, according to many former Napster employees, ready to deploy, but it had significant trouble obtaining licenses to distribute major-label music. On May 17, 2002, Napster announced that its assets would be acquired by German media firm Bertelsmann for $85 million to transform Napster into an online music subscription service. The two companies had been collaborating since the middle of 2000[25] where Bertelsmann became the first major label to drop its copyright lawsuit against Napster.[26] Pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement, on June 3 Napster filed for Chapter 11 protection under United States bankruptcy laws. On September 3, 2002, an American bankruptcy judge blocked the sale to Bertelsmann and forced Napster to liquidate its assets.[6]

Napster's brand and logos were acquired at a bankruptcy auction by Roxio which used them to re-brand the Pressplay music service as Napster 2.0. In September 2008, Napster was purchased by US electronics retailer Best Buy for US $121 million.[27] On December 1, 2011, pursuant to a deal with Best Buy, Napster merged with Rhapsody, with Best Buy receiving a minority stake in Rhapsody.[28] On July 14, 2016, Rhapsody phased out the Rhapsody brand in favor of Napster and has since branded its service internationally as Napster[29] and expanded toward other markets by providing music on-demand as a service to other brands[30] like the iHeartRadio app and their All Access music subscription service that provides subscribers with an on-demand music experience as well as premium radio.[31]

This lesson takes advantage of students' interest in music and audio sharing as part of a persuasive debate unit. Students investigate the controversial topic of downloading music from the Internet. They draw upon their prior knowledge and experience by discussing their own sources of music and Internet practices then conduct Internet research to investigate the history and legal issues of copyright infringement related to sharing audio files. Students use graphic organizers to synthesize information as well as to evaluate content and point of view. After students map their information, they take a stand on the controversy and develop persuasive arguments on their position that they present in a class debate on the subject of downloading.

CHANG: The video for that song, which was released on Friday, was pulled off the air by country music television after widespread criticism that scenes featured in it were deeply offensive, especially the setting where the video opens. We're going to talk more about that with Marcus K. Dowling, a country music reporter for The Tennessean. Welcome.

DOWLING: Well, in all things Jason Aldean, you have to go back to the idea that he's one of the more proudly conservative artists in mainstream country music currently. Aldean released the video with a social media post, and it was kind of, like, saying, well, like, you know, this is my latest single. Check it out. This is talking about being in a small town and my thoughts about kind of where we are as an American body politic. And the video has imaging of violence and perhaps racial tension. Then the tweets began to fire up...

DOWLING: Right - where, in a two-decadelong span, there were riots and lynching that occurred over racial background in that space. That caused things to ramp up even further because then the country music community at large, both left and right, began to weigh in and offer comments - positive, negative, criticism, applause. And it just turned into a greater look at where country music is in general - split diametrically opposed down the middle.

DOWLING: I will say that since 2020 and the murder of George Floyd that there has been a profound change towards greater accountability and awareness in country music in an unprecedented manner. Since this awareness, five African American males have had No. 1 singles since 2020. Mickey Guyton is a multiple-time Grammy-nominated country artist at this point. She's an African American artist. So there's just a profound sense that change is possible. And there needs to be an awareness of what needs to occur for change to occur.

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Since then, technologies that deliver music to listeners have evolved considerably but not without controversy. Audiocassettes, for example, were initially resisted fiercely by the music industry, which expressed fears that music fans would illegally record and freely share music, rather than paying for recorded products. A similar controversy has once again emerged, as the music industry wrestles with the now widespread phenomenon of music fans downloading and sharing music files over the Internet.

Since college students are among the most active groups of music downloaders, the music industry is asking postsecondary institutions to play a more active role in monitoring content their students download. Several higher education administrators have been outspoken against their playing such a role, as doing so would be a violation of students' right to privacy. There are, the administrators contend, many valid and legal uses of file-sharing technologies, and students should be able to use these technologies without being subject to invasions of privacy.

Given the aggressive stance of the RIAA, downloading copyrighted music illegally has grown increasingly unwise. In addition to the legal risks, peer-to-peer technologies can pose security risks. Users must be very careful to share only those files they're intending to share. One innocent mistake could allow other users to access personal files, including those containing passwords, financial information, or other private content. Even if the user makes no mistakes, there's always the possibility that a malicious user could find security holes in the file-sharing program and gain more access than the program intends. Also, anytime a file is downloaded to a computer, there is a risk that the file could introduce viruses. 0852c4b9a8

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