Tom’s Essay (2008)

The story behind the MP3 audio compression algorithm, including this tidbit:

So Mr. Brandenberg gets a copy of the song, and puts it through the newly created MP3. But instead of the “warm human voice” there are monstrous distortions, as though the Exorcist has somehow gotten into the system, shadowing every phrase. They spend months refining it, running “Tom’s Diner through the system over and over again with modifications, until it comes through clearly.

Which is to say, to song was copied, again and again, in its entirety, in order to perfect the algorithm.

A practice today which would all but certainly ressult in copyright violation claims against the developer.