The Rise and Fall of Napster

Jedi Paramedic writes "Boston.com has an interesting story about the rise and fall of everyone's favorite file-swapping service. Also the subject of a new book by Joseph Menn, the story goes into great detail about the unfortunate-but-heroic Shawn Fanning and his reluctance to admit that his uncle, who in the end masterminded little more than the lining of his own pockets, had taken advantage of him. From getting screwed in the original 70/30 split with his uncle to his uncle's refusal to loosen his iron grip on the company even at the expense of its very being, the article (and the book) go a long way in chronicling the rise and fall of Napster, and crediting Shawn for not airing the family's dirty laundry. An interesting and well-written read."

Comments

Of course he credits Shawn...

[telstar]

"crediting Shawn for not airing the family's dirty laundry"

• yeah .. 'cause if he had, there'd be no reason for anyone to buy Joseph's book.

When you get the book...

[lseltzer]

...please scan it in, OCR it and "share" the contents with others on the net, because I don't think people should have to pay for it.

Napster as the internet martyr

[l0ungeb0y]

Seems though the RIAA succeeded in crushing it in doing so it has created a cultural icon that shall be remembered for years, even decades to come.

Now, if we could just form a religion based upon the cat-like diety, perhaps we could defeat the DMCA as a form of freedom of Religion :)