By late 2002, the Recording Industry Association of America had sued the company successfully for copyright infringement, and the courts forced Napster to shut down.
The world’s biggest record labels, fearing the power these services gave to consumers, did everything they could to virtually “lock” CDs and online music files, so they wouldn’t spread like free MP3s.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder and chief executive, saw Napster, MP3s and the Internet a different way. By late 2002, he believed music fans clearly wanted to download songs they liked in an affordable and easy way, but during this period, the record industry had no affordable, easy and legal option allowing this to happen.
WATCH 32 MINUTES OF THOM YORKE’S ATOMS FOR PEACE SET
Someone in the crowd at last week’s show at London’s Oval Space recorded quite a lot of it and then uploaded it to YouTube. The sound quality isn’t amazing, but it’s still quite an interesting watch. CS
