Like the birth of most great music movements -- Elvis on Ed Sullivan, Patti Smith at CBGB -- Napster was rebellious of convention, threatening to established norms, and, well, really loud. The tiny startup from Hull, Mass. launched in early-1999, grabbing the world's attention almost immediately. At its core was a clever-if-crude piece of software -- so-called peer-to-peer technology -- that allowed computers to easily send each other files over a network. It would transform the Internet into a maelstrom, definitively proving the web's power to create and obliterate value.

    The company was famously co-founded by Shawn Fanning, a shy and earnest student at Northeastern University in Massachusetts; his uncle John Fanning, an entrepreneur who pioneered online chess; and Sean Parker, a friend Shawn had met on hacker message boards. The service became a phenomenon, shaping the cultural lexicon; "downloading" became a household term, and "sharing" became more than an elementary school lesson. And, of course, it brought the music industry to its knees, eventually leading to an unprecedented legal battle over intellectual property. At its peak, Napster had 70 million users -- a feat considering consumers were only getting their feet wet with broadband Internet service. Even in the age of Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB), Napster is still enshrined in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest-growing business ever. (A recently release documentary Downloaded traces the company's history; it will be available to stream online this month.)

    In the history of the Internet, Napster's story is foundational. Yes the company died. But don't most pioneers traversing new frontiers? The truth is, even today, Napster's mark is as visible as ever. Earlier this summer, Apple (AAPL) announced iTunes Radio, its own streaming music service, a faint echo of Napster's one-time ambitions. Artists continue to spar with the likes of Pandora (P) and Spotify over royalty issues. And though Napster didn't invent peer-to-peer networks, it introduced them into the mainstream. Now, some of the most disruptive startups, Airbnb to name one, run on peer-to-peer marketplaces.

    Napster finally fizzled away in 2011. It was unceremoniously bought and folded into Rhapsody, a competing music subscription service. But Napster's glory days were its first three years, before it filed for bankruptcy a decade ago. What follows here is the sometimes-bitter tale of Napster's rise and fall, as recalled by many of the players who lived it. These are recollections; like all memories, they may be fallible at the margins. In fact, some recollections herein contradict each other. Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker did not respond to repeated requests to be interviewed. John Fanning declined to comment.

    像大多数伟大的音乐运动（比如，猫王在埃德•苏利文秀场，帕蒂•史密斯在CBGB摇滚俱乐部的演出）的诞生历程一样，Napster反抗惯例，大声扬言要颠覆既定规范。1999年初，这家来自马萨诸塞州赫尔市的小公司一成立就几乎立刻抓住了整个世界的目光。它的核心是一个聪明（如果有些原始的话）的软件，这项所谓的“点对点技术”允许计算机之间通过网络轻松方便地传递文件。它将互联网转化为一个大漩涡，决定性地证明了网络所具有的创造和毁灭价值的力量。

    这家公司的创建历程早已成为传奇。创始人之一肖恩•范宁是马萨诸塞州东北大学(Northeastern University)一位腼腆、认真的学生，他的叔叔约翰•范宁是一位企业家，在线棋牌游戏的首创者。另一位创始人史恩•帕克与肖恩相识于黑客留言板。Napster的服务俨然已经成为一种现象，塑造了文化词典；“下载”成为一个家喻户晓的名词，“共享”已不仅仅是小学课程内容。当然，这项服务使得音乐产业一蹶不振，并最终导致了一场前所未有的知识产权官司战。Napster公司在鼎盛时期拥有7,000万用户——鉴于消费者当时刚刚接触宽带互联网服务不久，这的确是一个了不起的壮举。即使在谷歌(Google)和Facebook时代，Napster公司依然被吉尼斯世界纪录(Guinness Book of World Records)奉为有史以来增长最快的企业。近期发布的纪录片《下载》(Downloaded)回顾了Napster公司的历史，该片将于本月上线。

    在互联网历史上，Napster的故事是基础性的。是的，这家公司现在已经不复存在。但大多数开辟新领域的先驱最终不都香消玉殒了吗？事实是，即使在今天，Napster的痕迹依然清晰可见。本月初，苹果公司(Apple)推出它的流媒体音乐服务iTunes Radio广播，从中隐约可见Napster昔日的雄心壮志。音乐人依然与Pandora和Spotify等流媒体音乐平台争论版权问题。虽然Napster并不是点对点网络的发明者，但这家公司让它变成了主流。现在，一些最具颠覆性的初创公司，比如Airbnb，都是运行在点对点市场之上。

    2011年，Napster终于寿终正寝。它被粗暴地收购后，并入了竞争对手——音乐订阅服务商Rhapsody。但Napster的光辉岁月是成立后的前三年，而它在10年前已经申请破产。接下来，许多亲历者将为我们讲述Napster的兴衰故事，其中难免有一些苦涩的情节。这些都是回忆；像所有的回忆一样，一些细节性的东西或许不可靠。事实上，一些回忆相互矛盾。肖恩•范宁和史恩•帕克并没有回应我们反复提出的采访要求。约翰•范宁拒绝对此发表评论。

    I. THE IDEA

    So let's step back to spring of 1999. Shawn Fanning is a teenager hanging out on the messaging service Internet Relay Chat. He's on a channel called w00w00, a hacker network. Going by the online handle "Napster," -- a nickname he got from a trash talker making fun of his hair on the basketball court -- he tells the group about a program he's working on that will make it easier for people to swap music files. One person he turns to for help is Jordan Ritter, a 20-year-old security programmer who goes by the name "Nocarrier."

    Jordan Ritter (Napster founding architect): Interesting story there. The roots of Napster are actually in the computer security world. The underground. Myself and Matt Conover [another hacker on IRC] and a few other guys founded this group. And Fanning, er, Napster, was one of those people as well. Kind of a peripheral connection to the group. I'd never actually talked to him much before. Fanning started to solicit the group for help on this project he was working on, which I believe at the time was called Music Net.

    As technologists, as hackers, we were sharing content, sharing data all the time. If we wanted music, we would go into some IRC channel, and hit up a bot there and download music from it. It was still kind of a pain in the ass to get that stuff. So Fanning had a youthful idea: Man, this sucks. I'm bored, and I want to make something that makes this easier.

    Ali Aydar (Napster senior director of technology): I have to admit, I didn't get the gravity of Napster itself immediately. And what I mean by immediately, I mean when [Fanning] first described it to me. He kind of worked on me for 20 minutes, and after that it dawned on me how big this thing could be. And so that got me interested in helping him.

    1.创意

    首先，让我们把时钟拨回到1999年春天。当时还不到20岁的肖恩•范宁，在一个互联网中继聊天室(Internet Relay Chat)闲逛。他登上了一个名为w00w00的黑客网络频道。他用网名“Napster”——一个源自篮球场的绰号，有个家伙喷出这个脏字取笑他的头发——告诉这个小组，他正在致力于开发一个可以让人们更加容易交换音乐文件的软件。他向20岁的安全程序员乔丹•里特尔求助，后者的网名叫“Nocarrier”。

    乔丹•里特尔（Napster的创始架构师）：Napster的根源其实在计算机安全世界，而且是地下的。我、马特•科诺菲尔（互联网中继聊天室的另一位黑客）和其他几个朋友一起创建了这个小组。范宁，也就是Napster，也是这些人中的一位。他算是这个小组的外围人员吧。我此前从来没有跟他深入交流过。范宁开始就他正在从事的这个项目向小组求助。我记得，它当时叫音乐网(Music Net)。

    作为技术专家和黑客，我们一直共享内容和数据。如果我们想要音乐，我们会去互联网中继聊天室的某个频道，鼓捣出一个机器人程序，用它下载音乐。要得到这种东西，依然需要费一些周折。所以，范宁产生了一个富于青春活力的想法：伙计，这太恶心了，无聊透顶。我想创造一个使这一切更容易的玩意。

    艾达尔•阿里（Napster公司高级技术总监）：我不得不承认，我并没有立刻意识到Napster 的重要性。我所说的立刻，指的是范宁第一次向我描述它的时候。他大约劝说我了20分钟，我随后恍然大悟，突然意识到这是一个多么了不起的创意，所以就产生了帮助他的兴趣。（财富中文网）

    译者：任文科