Picture this scene. It's 1999. Your an IT student attending Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusettes. Your swapping music files with your mates using new file compression technology, MPEG Audio Layer 3 also known as MP3. You meet a guy over IRC (Internet Relay Chat), and decide to develop a platform whereby music files could be exchanged more efficiently. Hey, it'll look great on the CV!!

The two of you learn Windows programming to develop the software. You dub the platform 'Napster', after the nickname your folks called you when you were a kid. Your Uncle suggests getting some financial backing to support the project. Before you know it, you've got dotcom backers snapping at your heels to invest in the project. And within a year you've dropped out of college and set Napster up as a fulltime business.

Unfortunately your entrepreneureal skills aren't appreciated by everyone, and your getting your ass sued by the major record companies for mass copyright infringement. Your hauled up in the US Senate, the prosecution demanding you cease trading immediately.

Oh dear. And to think only a couple of years ago you were just a run of the mill college student. Now you've managed to create the biggest legal battle to hit the Internet and Music world.

This is exactly what happened to Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, and this eCommerce microsite is dedicated to the Napster phenomenon, looking at how this has split the music industry down the middle, the repercussions it could have for the computing and music industries for years to come, the initiatives set up by record companies trying to combat Napster, and also the compression technology responsible, Mp3.