Napster Inspired a Generation of Rule-Breaking Entrepreneurs

Napster to me really symbolizes how the tech industry got it's start flaunting the law (fair use rules in this and AI's case) and embracing media piracy in an attempt to make profit.

"Napster to me embodies the idea that it is better to seek forgiveness than permission," said Mark Lemley, director of Stanford Law School's Program in Law, Science & Technology. "It didn't work out well for Napster or for many of the others who got sued, but it worked out very well for everyone else — users, and eventually the content industry, too, which is making record profits...." [Napster co-founder Sean] Parker later advised Spotify, and Napster marketing chief Oliver Schusser is now Apple's vice president for music.

These sort of tech libertarianism ideals seeped into Silicon Valley's modus operandi to apps like Uber, Airbnb, and to modern AI companies (and et al.) that destroyed pre-existing and widely regulated industries and upended society in attempts to commodify both its workers and users, solely for the goal of maximizing profits and rent seeking.

No paywall: https://archive.is/iZ2o6