Napster
English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]Named after Napster, a file-sharing system (not itself a website) that facilitated the copying of copyrighted MP3 audio files, itself named after a nickname of its creator Shawn Fanning, referring to his nappy-textured hair; hence nap + -ster.
Noun
[edit]Napster (plural Napsters)
- (Internet) Any website that facilitates free distribution of data.
- 2004 July 12, “Yukos Offers $8 Billion To Cover Its Tax Bill”, in New York Times[1]:
- Some in the used-book industry are questioning whether Amazon.com is becoming the Napster of the book business.
- 2007 October 15, “Video Napster?”, in Newsweek[2]:
- It would be easy to call the venture-backed, San Mateo-based YouTube the Napster of video, an outlaw startup rocketing onto dotcom radar screens on the backs of rights-holders. But that's a designation that the year-old company desperately wants to avoid.
- 2019 May 26, Dan Cohen, “The Books of College Libraries Are Turning Into Wallpaper”, in The Atlantic[3]:
- In many fields, we now have the equivalent of Spotify for research: vast databases that help scholars search millions of articles and connect them—often through highly restrictive and increasingly unsustainable subscriptions, but that is another story—instantly to digital copies. (There is also a Napster for research articles, of which we shall not speak.)
Verb
[edit]Napster (third-person singular simple present Napsters, present participle Napstering, simple past and past participle Napstered)
- To download from Napster.
- 2001 February 27, grady, “slashdot does the math for the RIAA”, in alt.music.chapel-hill[4] (Usenet):
- I have done my part this year by buying fewer albums than in any year since, um, 1982 I think it was. No, I haven't been Napstering them, either. I'm catching up to my backlog of listening, listening to the radio, and most-of-all spending a lot of time with demos of friends' bands, and with the tapes I make of my live show every week.
- To upload to or as if to Napster.
- 2005 December 22, 19th century nuthouses, “Odd Google Logo Today???”, in 24hoursupport.helpdesk[7] (Usenet):
- Google does the "Napstering"-sharing of public and copyrighted materials they take possession of, online. They are pigs, fascists, as that's what fascists do: take all books in the world, for free, and add sponsor links to the public materials.
- To shut down, especially for copyright infringement, as Napster was.
- 2005 May 21, Michael K. Edwards, “Bug#310994: ITP: openttd -- open source clone of the Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe"”, in linux.debian.legal[8] (Usenet):
- Don't get me wrong. I am not interested in making that case myself with regard to Debian. On the contrary; I don't want to see Debian get Napstered. Putting obviously infringing stuff onto the mirror network is just begging for trouble. It's not like it's that hard for people to set up their own repositories; let them gamble with their own assets.