Downloaded

Ah, the story of Napster is the story of the start of the download culture. And this story is told in Downloaded.

Napster was filling a niche in the internet to allow sharing... and yep, they knew that people would be pirating music (whoops), but the technology advancement was major, even if that's not what court cases brought to the fore. We get the start up story of Napster, how it nearly got protected under DCMA, and then got slapped around by the RIAA and others. Some musicians like it, some hate it, but the point of it all is that downloading music is now a thing.

Napster led the way, but it was one of those things that someone was going to do it. And that's was this is really about, record labels still wanting people to buy products that wear out and need to be replaced... which no longer happens in the technology age. Oops. And in many ways, they are still struggling to get proper traction.

Interesting enough documentary, about an important piece of internet history.

And, because it's apt:

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