There are many cases about the Federal Copyright Infringement laws.
District Court, Northern District of California May 12, 2000,and UMG Recordings, Inc., et al. v. MP3.com, Inc. United States District Court, Southern District of New York May 4, 2000. These are two of the many cases that involve the copyright laws of Internet file sharing sites. .
Napster was a small Internet start-up based in San Mateo, California. Made its proprietary MusicShare software freely available for Internet users to download. Users who obtain Napster's software can then share MP3 music files with others logged-on to the Napster system. MP3 files, which reproduce nearly CD-quality sound in a compressed format, are available on a variety of websites either for a fee or free-of-charge. Napster allowed users to exchange MP3 files stored on their own computer hard-drives directly, without payment. Napster was the first site to become as large as it did. The web site was a pioneer of file sharing software, which would lead to many others following.(gigalaw #1).
Napster typically involves the following basic steps: After downloading MusicShare software from the Napster website, a user can access the Napster system from her computer. The MusicShare software interacts with Napster's server-side software when the user logs on, automatically connecting her to one of some 150 servers that Napster operates. The MusicShare software reads a list of names of MP3 files that the user has elected to make available. This list is then added to a directory and index, on the Napster server, of MP3 files that users who are logged-on wish to share. If the user wants to locate a song, she enters its name or the name of the recording artist on the search page of the MusicShare program and clicks the "Find It" button. The Napster software then searches the current directory and generates a list of files responsive to the search request.