5th March, 2001
Napster file sharing network is ordered to shut down.

An injunction was issued on March 5, 2001 ordering Napster to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on its network. In July 2001, Napster shut down its entire network in order to comply with the injunction.

Napster was first released in June 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker- Fanning was putting together an easier method of finding music than searching through the existing systems. It was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer filesharing systems, where files were exchanged directly between users rather than downloaded from a central server (although as it used centralised servers to maintain lists of the connected systems and files present, it was not strictly a fully peer-to-peer system.)

Napster specialized exclusively in music in the form of MP3 files and presented a user-friendly interface, resulting in a system whose popularity generated an enormous selection of music to download. Verified Napster use peaked with 26.4 million users worldwide in February 2001; however, former employees contend that the service had at least 40 million users in June of 2000.

The record companies saw this easy access to free copyrighted music with no means of paying or collecting royalties as a massive threat to their business model and began lengthy legal proceedings to close down the network. This was slowed by the fact that Napster itself wasn't directly responsible for the distribution of copyrighted materials (in much the same way that the sellers blank tapes and CDs were not responsible for people copying records and sharing them with their friends.)