Naturally, many users were, in fact, violating copyright laws as they freely recorded music and made it available to others. Napster argued that users, not Napster, were responsible for ensuring the files they were sharing were not protected by copyright laws. The lawsuit alleged that Napster was allowing users to illegally share copyrighted materials. Napster and similar services provide a centralized index of these shared files, where individuals can search for, locate, and download songs. Napster was an early giant in peer-to-peer file sharing, a technology with which users allow the contents of select files and directories on their computer's hard drives to be freely accessed by other users. The controversy reached a peak in December 1999, when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Napsterâ„¢. A similar controversy has once again emerged, as the music industry wrestles with the now widespread phenomenon of music fans downloading and sharing music files over the Internet. Audiocassettes, for example, were initially resisted fiercely by the music industry, which expressed fears that music fans would illegally record and freely share music, rather than paying for recorded products. Since then, technologies that deliver music to listeners have evolved considerably but not without controversy. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.
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