The Napster Kid: Shawn Fanning terrorized an industry. Will he be able to go on?
When Napster filed for bankruptcy last week a technical move that was part of its takeover by German media giant Bertelsmann it was music to record executives' ears. It meant that the threat unleashed by an 18-year-old named Shawn Fanning, who had 60 million people using his software to download free music, was finally contained. When Napster returns it will be a "legitimate" corporate site, with orderly, paying customers. That's the plan, but containing Napster is not the same as controlling the file-swapping community. The music industry has tried everything from lawsuits to substitutes, launching sites where subscribers can...
