Today in 1999, just a few days before the start of the new millennium, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit against Napster. If you haven’t heard of Napster, it was a PC/Mac app that enabled users to share their digital music collections using P2P technology. It launched on June 1, 1999. Napster wasn’t concerned about artist or record company royalties’ it was just a platform, and it got very popular very quickly at around the same time ADSL internet connections became mainstream. Napster ceased operations in 2001, filing for bankruptcy in June 2002.
The powerful RIAA wanted millions in compensation from Napster and its creators, alleging the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in music sales for its clients. However, at the time of Napster’s heyday, there were no legitimate alternatives. One would have to fast-forward to the end of April 2003 to be able to purchase music via Apple’s iTunes, for example.
PC tech news
- AMD 4800S Desktop Kit supports Radeon RX 6600, launches next year
- AMD and Intel Announce Online Press Events on January 4, 2022 – update- Nvidia will have a keynote on the same day
- AMD FX-6300 Hits 8GHz, Scoring a Minor Overclocking Record
- “HDMI 2.1” doesn’t have to mean any particular new gaming features
- AeroCool Intros Evo Mini Series Micro-ATX Tower Cases
Gaming
- The Xbox Windows app will let you know if games play well on your PC before you download them
- Nvidia highlights that Elden Ring launches on PC in Feb 2022
- Ubisoft is giving away Anno 1404 History Edition this week
- Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves gets a Steam page ahead of potential release date reveal later this week
Tech videos
- Asus ProArt Station PD5 – Your Creation Initiation
- Alienware M15 R6 Gaming Laptop Product Overview
- Dell XPS Desktop (2021) promo video shared
- Der8auer: My first time using an AMD Mobile GPU in over 10 years – this changed A LOT
- MSI MAG281URF monitor – offers “absurd sharpness & pixel density”
- Nvidia Inception is a free program designed to help your startup evolve faster
- Nvidia shares Chorus launch trailer
- Asus showcases Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One in-game lighting effects with Aura Sync
- EVGA shares Battlefield 2042 – 4K DLSS + RTX HDR Gameplay. Playing on the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra
Other tech and business
- WhatsApp criticised for plan to let messages disappear after 24 hours
- Battery ‘dream technology’ is a step closer to reality with new discovery
- Designers hope hydrogen-powered plane will fly halfway around the world without refueling
- IKEA Nordmärke portable wireless charger details revealed by the FCC
- Imagination Technologies Introduces Catapult Series with RISC-V CPU Cores
- Samsung’s mobile and consumer electronic divisions merge into one in exec reshuffle
