Shawn Fanning
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Shawn "Napster" Fanning (born 1980 in Brockton, Massachusetts, USA) developed Napster, the first popular peer-to-peer filesharing platform, in 1999. He stayed up for 60 hours straight on his laptop coding a program that would provide an easy way to download music. Fanning developed the program while attending Boston's Northeastern University. Fanning made the cover of Wired magazine and rose to fame but soon Napster was the target of several music industry backed lawsuits, which ultimately ended up causing the cessation of the service.
Since November, 2002, the Napster name and logos have been property of Roxio, Inc.
Fanning recently launched a new company, Snocap, Inc. aimed at keeping track of music for copyright holders. He also appeared in a tiny cameo, playing himself, in The Italian Job (2003); in the film, another character accused Fanning of stealing Napster from him.
External Links
- Snocap.com (http://www.snocap.com/)
- Napster.com (http://www.napster.com/)