What is Napster

�A. Napster is a free music distribution service, devised by the US youngster Shawn Fanning. At the age of 19, the rock music fan wrote the software for Napster to allow Internet users to copy songs saved as computer files and then swap those songs with each other over the web. Napster was launched in January 1999, and in just two years, has acquired 67.5 million registered users with new members joining the site at the rate of 8 million per month.

�

Q. Where did the name Napster come from

A. Shawn Fanning earned the nickname Napster because of his thick, curly hair, which his schoolmates labelled ‘nappy’. When Shawn wrote the music-swapping software he affectionately named it after himself.

�

Q. Why has Napster become the target of so many lawsuits

A. Napster is the most popular and highest earning of the many MP3 websites, therefore it is understandable that the top music companies, along with various musicians including Dr Dre and Metallica, have targeted their copyright lawsuits at the site. The big five music producers – Sony, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Bertelsmann Music Group - claimed that free music distribution on the web was collectively costing them �2.5 billion a year in lost revenues. Napster, along with another popular website called MP3.com, became the main target of these lawsuits because it is believed to be making the most profit from the illegal online distribution of music.

�

Q. What is the outcome of the law suits

A. After nearly a year of legal wrangling, the big music companies have finally won the war against free music distribution. Within the past week, Napster has been ordered, by a San Francisco-based court, to remove 135, 000 copyrighted songs from its online database. This court order will force a serious scaling back of Napster’s service as users will no longer have access to the vast bulk of the world’s popular music. If the site fails to filter these songs out of its service – a task that many believe the website does not have the technology to do – the site will effectively be closed down. If Napster does manage to meet this deadline and purge itself of all the named tracks, the site will be allowed to continue operating as a legal ‘fee paying’ service in conjunction with the record company, Bertlesmann. The new breed Napster, is set to launch on July 1 2001, and will work by charging Internet users a set fee for unlimited access to its vast database of downloadable songs.

�

Q. Are there any other MP3 sites that allow people to download music for free

A. Although there are several MP3 sites on the net, Napster is the most popular because it has the widest catalogue of songs and is the easiest to use. However, if Napster ceases, there are still other websites offering a similar service including napigator.com and gnutella.com. While�Whippit.com, set�for�launch later in the year,�claims�to offer a service similar to Napster's.

�

�����������������������������������������������By Christina Okoli