The Internet, Napster, and an Initial Corporate Rejection of this New Medium

The Internet changed all this. Working as a strong example of McLuhan's Global Village, the Internet represents the re-tribalizing of human societies (Mcluhan and Zingrone, 117). Therefore, it naturally follows, that a popular medium, such as the CD, overheats and becomes something as cold and participatory as downloaded music (McLuhan, 38). The first incarnation of music file sharing to achieve mass usage was Napster. Napster was a program that enabled its users to share their musical libraries of MP3 files with one another through mutual downloading and uploading. It only lasted two years, until it was forced to shut down by a court order by way of the Recording Industry of Association America (Guy Douglas BA (Hons), Sec. 25). Napster later re-emerged as a new program where users could pay to legally download music files.. Napster inspired many similar peer-to-peer programs to develop. In the next few years, programs such as Kazaa, Limewire, and Grogster appeared, and many were similarly forced to shut down.

Here is a short documentary on Napster: