- JANUARY, 1999 Shawn Fanning leave Northeastern University after the
first semester of his freshman year to work on the Napster software.
- JUNE 1, 1999 Napster begins operations, allowing people to swap music
files.
- AUGUST, 1999 John Fanning, Shawn's uncle, and other investors, offer
enough to keep the company going for six more months.
- SEPTEMBER, 1999 Eileen Richardson is hired to be Napster's CEO.
- OCTOBER/NOVEMBER, 1999 Negotiations fail with major record companies
to distribute online music .
- DEC. 7, 1999 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
sues for copyright infringement, asking for damages of $100,000 each
time a song is copied.
- FEBRUARY/MARCH, 2000 Scores of universities ban Napster because heavy
student use is overwhelming their computer systems. Students circulate
online petitions, urging administrators to lift their Napster bans.
- APR. 13, 2000 Rock band Metallica sues Napster for copyright infringement.
- MAY 9, 2000 Napster, in order to show concern over copyright infringements,
removes over 300,000 members from its service for downloading Metallica
songs.
- MAY 21, 2000 Richardson leaves after Hank Barry becomes Napster's
CEO.Venture-capital firm Hummer Winblad invests $15 million in Napster.
- JUNE 13, 2000 The RIAA files a motion for a preliminary injunction
to block all major-label content from being traded through Napster.
- JUNE 15, 2000 Napster hires David Boies, Microsoft's former successful
attorney.
- JUNE 19, 2000 Napster hires former A&M Records exec Milton Olin
to be chief operating officer.
- JULY 24, 2000 Napster announces plans to work with digital-rights
technology company Liquid Audio to try to make its music downloads safe
for copyright holders.
- JULY 26, 2000 U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel rules in favor of
the record industry and orders Napster to stop allowing copyrighted
material to be swapped over its network by midnight two days later.
- JULY 28, 2000 Hours before Napster would have had to shut down, the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the company should be
allowed to continue its operations.
- 16 OCTOBER 2, 2000 Appeals court hears oral arguments regarding the
injunction.
- OCTOBER 31, 2000 Napster announces partnership with German media company,
Bertelsmann AG, to develop a membership-based distribution system that
would guarantee payments to artists.
- FEBRUARY 12, 2001 Federal appeals court rules that Napster must stop
trading in copyrighted material and may be held liable for copyright
infringement.
- MARCH, 2001 Napster puts in place a file filtering system designed
to block users from downloading specific music files specified by an
initial list provided by record company attorneys.
- MARCH, 2001 Judge Patel rules that the burden of notification is on
the recording industry, thus lessening the legal burden on Napster.
The injunction requires that the record companies provide four pieces
of information to Napster for the songs to be blocked: title of work
to be blocked, name of the artist, one or more filenames the song was
available as on Napster, and certification the companies own the work.
- 17 JULY, 2001 In response to the court's demands, Napster begins to
utilize Playmedia systems' secure encoding and playback technology in
its new membership service.
- JULY 11,2001 Despite a 99% effectiveness rate by Napster's security
technology in identifying and screening out noticed music copying abuses,
a district court judge issues an order prohibiting Napster from enabling
file transfers unless it reaches a 100% success rate. This order essentially
shuts the Napster file sharing service down SEPTEMBER 25, 2001 Napster
reaches a deal with songwriters and music publishers. The settlement
says that Napster will pay 26 million to them.
- 2002 Napster closes for good.
- December 2002 : Roxio buys Napster.
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