(Written for a Public Law & Judicial Process [GOVT301] class at George Mason University.)
Napster, a once-promising new system of sharing files over the internet, is now essentially dead. After losing its monumental court case against representatives of the music industry and failing to win on appeal, the site today consists of a message declaring the site a “work in progress” and links to Napster merchandise. The file sharing program and its infrastructure no longer seem to exist.1