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For the past year the major record companies have had a hard time competing against the new technology of downloading free music in the Internet. After long months of lawsuits and disputes with Napster, the five major record companies: EMI, Sony, BMG, Universal and Warner Music have had to find their won way in order to survive with these technological advances. What most of the record labels have decided is to create their won online music facility to download music, by charging monthly fees for their services. As many say, "if you can't beat them, join them".

Napster, was created in 1999 by 19-year-old Shawn Fanning, it allowed users free access to music files. File sharing was so easy, cheap and accessible that NApster had more than 60 million members in the short until it abruptly shut down in 2001. Legal troubles with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the five major record labels forced them to shut down until the court settles the case. The major record labels accused Napster of stealing copyrighted material and pirating software. Although, on January 2002, the record companies suspended their lawsuit against Napster after the judge approved Napster to explore if the record companies were preventing online music companies of being able to get their licensing to sell music on the Internet. Though, record companies argue that tey suspended the lawsuit because they were getting to a personal agreement with Napster and the lawsuit would be a distraction and it would eventually leave Napster bancrupt.

Nowadays, Napster is going to be able to work again, but this time with music licensing and chargin gor their services. The new Napster will be availabe in early 2002, and will be charging between five to ten dollars a month.

April 13, 2000: Heavy metal rock group Metallica sues Napster for copyright infringement and racketeering. Rapper Dr. Dre files suit two weeks later.
May 3, 2000: Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and the band's attorney produce list of more than 335,000 Internet user names of people the band says are illegally sharing their songs using Napster.
May 5, 2000: U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel rules that Napster is not entitled to "safe harbor" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
July 26, 2000: Patel grants the RIAA's request for a preliminary injunction and orders Napster shut down.
July 28, 2000: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stays the lower court injunction, ruling that "substantial questions" were raised about the merits and form of Patel's injunction.
Oct. 2, 2000: Appeals court hears oral arguments.
Oct. 31, 2000: Napster announces partnership with Bertelsmann AG to develop a membership-based distribution system that would guarantee payments to artists. Under the deal, Bertelsmann agrees to drop lawsuit against Napster and make its music catalog available to Napster, while gaining the right to buy a stake in the service.
Feb. 12, 2001: In a clear victory for the recording industry, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that Napster must prevent its subscribers from gaining access to content on its search index that could potentially infringe copyrights.
Feb. 20, 2001: Napster offers $1 billion to record companies if they drop their suit. The recording industry scoffs at the offer.
Feb. 21, 2001: 9th Circuit Appeals Court orders Napster to cease trading copy written songs. First, the U.S. District Court for Northern California must rewrite its injunction closing Napster.
March 2, 2001: As a concession, Napster lawyer offers that the service will install software over the weekend to partially satisfy the order to stop trading copy written songs. Lawyer David Boies says the software would block trading of a million songs that had been singled out in months past by record labels and artists including Dr. Dre and Metallica. But those songs are still being traded after the weekend.