ABSTRACT
The use of peer-to-peer networks to exchange music files gained popularity in the late 1990s. Napster, one of the most notorious networking programs at that time, let users exchange compressed audio files known as MP3s. Soon after its inception, thousands of users were sharing copyrighted songs through the Internet. It was a great way for people to obtain desired music without paying for what many consumers perceived to be an overpriced commodity. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) hurriedly sued Napster and won, but other programs quickly replaced it. Fighting program designers was a dead end, so in 2003, the RIAA announced it was going to start suing individual file sharers-a policy that continues (Moore and McMullan 2004, Bhattacharjee et al. 2006).
