Napster

Napster is an example of a peer-to-peer network, and the grey area that is the legality of such things. Its huge library of free music attracted 80million music-lovers by 2000. It panicked the record industry as they were not being paid for the distribution, simply the initial purchase, and they could not prosecute individuals because they were simply sharing files; they are virtually impossible to close down

Napster was shut down in 2001 and re-opened as a legal download site, and yet record companies faced greater challenges from other such networks like Kazaa. Time has proven that people will continue to download music illegally, especially in the face of rising prices (like iTunes' recent announcement, which stated that DRM-free files will be available at 99p, as opposed to the previous 79p), so should these networks be made legal?