Napster, the original P2P file sharing service, just sold for $207 million

In brief: Ownership of Napster is changing hands once again. The company, which started life as a peer-to-peer file sharing service more than 25 years ago, is being purchased by Infinite Reality for $207 million. The immersive technology specialist plans to transform Napster from a legitimate streaming music service into a social and interactive music platform. Napster's claim to fame came near the turn of the century. The file sharing service made it trivially easy for the average Joe to share and download copyrighted music with others online, threatening the livelihood of artists and record labels. Legal issues proved to be Napster's undoing, with the service shutting down in 2001 before filing for bankruptcy a year later. Napster's story did not end there, however, as its assets and brand name would be passed around to multiple owners over subsequent years. Roxio, for example, purchased Napster's assets at auction and used them to rebrand its existing music service. Best Buy later ... Read full article.