On April 14, 2000, Lars Ulrich of the band Metallica filed a lawsuit against the popular peer-to-peer music sharing program Napster, accusing the program of circulating pirated music and violating copyright laws. Napster was an incredibly popular online music file sharing service which allowed users to share their MP3 files with other participants. Though Napster only operated between June 1999 and July 2001, it had 26.4 million users at the height of its popularity.

In early 2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of an unreleased song had been circulating across Napster. This eventually led to the song being played on several radio stations across America and brought to Metallica’s attention that their entire back catalogue of studio material was also available on Napster. On April 14, 2000, the band responded to this copyright violation by filing a lawsuit against the service offered by Napster. Not long after, several other artists including Dr. Dre and Madonna also filed similar lawsuits against Napster. Napster settled these suits in 2001.

The lawsuits brought against Napster by these artists were the catalyst for suits filed by several record companies. These suits accused Napster of copyright infringement under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Napster lost their case against these record companies and was shut down in 2001.

Today, Napster has re-launched as a subscription service, in compliance with digital copyright laws. Unfortunately, it will likely never be as popular as it was in its heyday, but it will always be remembered for its cultural impact.