When a dramatic feature film gets made out of an investigative magazine article, there’s usually some conventional heroic hook to it. But not always. “Silk Road,” written and directed by Tiller Russell, is
During the two years of its existence, Silk Road was an underground Amazon or eBay of drugs — a platform where dealers and buyers could find each other, which meant that you could order a nicely priced, vacuum-sealed package of cannabis or Ecstasy or pharmaceutical-grade cocaine and have it delivered to your door through the U.S. Postal Service. The person who dreamed this all up, and ran the site under the cult-like pseudonym of the Dread Pirate Roberts, was Ross Ulbricht, a 26-year-old libertarian gadfly from Austin, Tex., who convinced himself that by creating an underground marketplace for illegal narcotics, he was striking a blow against the system.
Ulbricht was the subject of David Kushner’s...
During the two years of its existence, Silk Road was an underground Amazon or eBay of drugs — a platform where dealers and buyers could find each other, which meant that you could order a nicely priced, vacuum-sealed package of cannabis or Ecstasy or pharmaceutical-grade cocaine and have it delivered to your door through the U.S. Postal Service. The person who dreamed this all up, and ran the site under the cult-like pseudonym of the Dread Pirate Roberts, was Ross Ulbricht, a 26-year-old libertarian gadfly from Austin, Tex., who convinced himself that by creating an underground marketplace for illegal narcotics, he was striking a blow against the system.
Ulbricht was the subject of David Kushner’s...
- 2/19/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Director, actor and former Bill & Ted star talks about his latest film, Grand Piano, his documentary Deep Web, and lots more...
Although perhaps best known for his roles in two Bill & Ted films and The Lost Boys, Alex Winter is equally at home behind the camera, having spent the last two decades working predominantly as a director – from the cult classic Freaked, through various music videos, adverts and movies, up to his recent documentary Downloaded (which tells the story of Shawn Fanning and Napster) and the upcoming, Kickstarted-funded Deep Web.
Recently, however, he’s taken a rare step back into acting, appearing alongside Elijah Wood and John Cusack as a villainous usher in Eugenio Mira’s stylish thriller Grand Piano. We caught up with Alex down the line from his new home base in La, to discuss his work on both sides of the actor-director divide.
So I guess the first question,...
Although perhaps best known for his roles in two Bill & Ted films and The Lost Boys, Alex Winter is equally at home behind the camera, having spent the last two decades working predominantly as a director – from the cult classic Freaked, through various music videos, adverts and movies, up to his recent documentary Downloaded (which tells the story of Shawn Fanning and Napster) and the upcoming, Kickstarted-funded Deep Web.
Recently, however, he’s taken a rare step back into acting, appearing alongside Elijah Wood and John Cusack as a villainous usher in Eugenio Mira’s stylish thriller Grand Piano. We caught up with Alex down the line from his new home base in La, to discuss his work on both sides of the actor-director divide.
So I guess the first question,...
- 9/29/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
The Fifth Estate, Bill Condon’s feverishly edgy and exciting drama about the events surrounding WikiLeaks and its infamous founder, the renegade Australian journalist-anarchist Julian Assange, is one of the only movies I’ve seen that really gets, in the rollicking density of its storytelling DNA, how the Internet has changed everything. It’s easy to see why Condon, returning from the Twilight zone to his role as a serious entertainer (Kinsey, Gods and Monsters), wanted to make this movie. In form, it’s a vintage journalism thriller, a nihilistic newspaper drama for the dark digital age. Assange, played by...
- 9/6/2013
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW - Inside Movies
The WikiLeaks film The Fifth Estate has proven to be as divisive as its subject.
The journalism drama, about the early David vs. Goliath victories of Julian Assange’s truth-telling tech movement, kicked off the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night.
There was praise for Benedict Cumberbatch’s incarnation of the white-haired cyber-guru — who is a hero to some, and an instigator of chaos to others. And the film got an extended standing ovation at the premiere, but early reviews were generally harsh, which could sap its Oscar hopes.
EW’s Owen Gleiberman split from the naysayers and gave...
The journalism drama, about the early David vs. Goliath victories of Julian Assange’s truth-telling tech movement, kicked off the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night.
There was praise for Benedict Cumberbatch’s incarnation of the white-haired cyber-guru — who is a hero to some, and an instigator of chaos to others. And the film got an extended standing ovation at the premiere, but early reviews were generally harsh, which could sap its Oscar hopes.
EW’s Owen Gleiberman split from the naysayers and gave...
- 9/6/2013
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW - Inside Movies
From superhero movies to techy sitcoms to captains of industry, geeks have been running the show for years. But now that 'geek chic' is in the dictionary, and Topshop is selling 'dork' T-shirts, what is the future for nerd culture?
• The top 10 geek heroes, from Umberto Eco to Mary Berry
Cheer up, Britain – the clever people have won at last. Just look around you. If you went to a music festival, visited the beach or left the house this summer you'll have seen incontrovertible evidence on T-shirts. They were everywhere, declaring the wearer to be a Geek, Nerd or Dork in that big fat confident slab-serif typeface that usually says you're talking to someone who proudly attends Penn or Nyu. Topshop brought out the three designs last Christmas, contestant Jordan Lee Davies wore the Geek shirt on The Voice in April, and they they were bootlegged quicker than you can...
• The top 10 geek heroes, from Umberto Eco to Mary Berry
Cheer up, Britain – the clever people have won at last. Just look around you. If you went to a music festival, visited the beach or left the house this summer you'll have seen incontrovertible evidence on T-shirts. They were everywhere, declaring the wearer to be a Geek, Nerd or Dork in that big fat confident slab-serif typeface that usually says you're talking to someone who proudly attends Penn or Nyu. Topshop brought out the three designs last Christmas, contestant Jordan Lee Davies wore the Geek shirt on The Voice in April, and they they were bootlegged quicker than you can...
- 9/3/2013
- by Andrew Harrison
- The Guardian - Film News
Title: Downloaded Director: Alex Winter David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin provided a superlative look at the messy founding of one of the new digital age’s true pillars with the Oscar-winning “The Social Network.” Before Facebook, though, there was of course Napster — the decentralized music file-sharing service that represented the original web-era socioeconomic disrupter, and brought the recording industry to its knees before itself flaming out in a bevy of lawsuits. Directed by Alex Winter, the documentary “Downloaded” provides a robustly engaging overview of its renegade birth and premature death rattle. Wanting to be able to trade and share electronic music files, Shawn Fanning and co-creator Sean Parker (who would [ Read More ]
The post Downloaded Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Downloaded Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 7/14/2013
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
Downloaded is a great documentary for many reasons. The greatest of these might be its effortless and uncanny ability to throw into stark relief just how massively the world of computers and the Internet has radically changed in just a few short years. This offering from director Alex Winter takes a look at the little file-sharing community that started it all, Napster, and follows the rise and fall of a concept that indelibly changed the entire world forever. Though slightly long and running with the standard "talking heads" mode of documentation, Downloaded is an informative and comprehensive look at the conception and implementation of Napster, the world's first mp3 file sharing network. Beginning as a mere gleam in the eye of engineer Shawn Fanning, and...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 6/20/2013
- Screen Anarchy
For anyone in their 30s (or beyond), they've lived through a tremendous change in how music is consumed and shared in a third of a lifetime. From vinyl to cassettes to CDs to mp3s, from mixed tapes to mixed CDs to Spotify playlists, everything about how we engage with music has been profoundly pushed forward, and part of that most recent shift is thanks to Napster. The file sharing service that essentially brought the once mighty record industry to its knees connected listeners in ways that no one had ever thought of. It's a story with more twists and turns than your average Hollywood thriller. And it's now being told. Alex Winter (yes, Bill S. Preston himself) has quietly been putting together a directorial career and his latest is the documentary "Downloaded" that chronicles the rise and fall of Napster, and includes the very players involved to help tell the tale.
- 6/18/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
From Napster to Now, Winter Examines the Downloading Boom
Napster’s rise and fall and the ensuing decade of music piracy is at this point common knowledge but it is easy to forget that at the outset it was just a dozen college kids sitting in a crowded room, eating cold pizza, trying to keep the servers up. From the creators of peer to peer file sharing, the artists who suffered, the artists who benefited (an oft-overlooked group, and a huge one), or the people who created this seismic shift (the fans), with Downloaded, docu-helmer Alex Winter sharply stitches together a balanced, all encompassing view on the subject and its many assiduous voices.
One kid in his dorm room has the power to bring the music industry to its knees and forever re-shape the way we buy, access and listen to music. This much we know. What Napster’s creator...
Napster’s rise and fall and the ensuing decade of music piracy is at this point common knowledge but it is easy to forget that at the outset it was just a dozen college kids sitting in a crowded room, eating cold pizza, trying to keep the servers up. From the creators of peer to peer file sharing, the artists who suffered, the artists who benefited (an oft-overlooked group, and a huge one), or the people who created this seismic shift (the fans), with Downloaded, docu-helmer Alex Winter sharply stitches together a balanced, all encompassing view on the subject and its many assiduous voices.
One kid in his dorm room has the power to bring the music industry to its knees and forever re-shape the way we buy, access and listen to music. This much we know. What Napster’s creator...
- 3/27/2013
- by Jesse Klein
- IONCINEMA.com
Downloaded is a great documentary for many reasons. The greatest of these might be its effortless and uncanny ability to throw into stark relief just how massively the world of computers and the Internet has radically changed in just a few short years. This offering from director Alex Winter takes a look at the little file-sharing community that started it all, Napster, and follows the rise and fall of a concept that indelibly changed the entire world forever. Though slightly long and running with the standard "talking heads" mode of documentation, Downloaded is an informative and comprehensive look at the conception and implementation of Napster, the world's first mp3 file sharing network. Beginning as a mere gleam in the eye of engineer Shawn Fanning,...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 3/18/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Austin -- If there's anybody who had a front row seat on the dismantling of the traditional music industry model, it's Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the two founders of Napster. They put that show on. Peer-to-peer sharing indisputably was part of weakening labels, falling sales and creative disputes between artists and the companies that were supposed to support their artform, and Napster was one of the first companies to do P2P well. In turn, it was the lightning rod to the storm to come. Fanning and Parker were on hand for the premiere of "Downloaded," a documentary on Napster, at...
- 3/18/2013
- Hitfix
My third day of the fest was my busiest for film watching, with three titles. I'm finding this year that transportation considerations are taking more time than ever. Parking downtown is a complaint on everyone's lips as the Convention Center garages fill up in the early morning, and many surface lots that would normally serve overflow have been covered in tents for different events. Since this is my first year taking SXSW Film red carpet photos, I've learned it's a big drain on time as check-in can be 90 minutes to two hours before showtime.
So, my Sunday included a red carpet for the Turk Pipkin Christmas movie When Angels Sing (my review) and ended with the ass-demon horror comedy Milo (my review). Sandwiched in between, I caught Alex Winters' Napster documentary Downloaded.
I have little more to say about Downloaded than I tweeted right after seeing the film. I found the film repetitive,...
So, my Sunday included a red carpet for the Turk Pipkin Christmas movie When Angels Sing (my review) and ended with the ass-demon horror comedy Milo (my review). Sandwiched in between, I caught Alex Winters' Napster documentary Downloaded.
I have little more to say about Downloaded than I tweeted right after seeing the film. I found the film repetitive,...
- 3/15/2013
- by Mike Saulters
- Slackerwood
When Napster co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker took the stage after the world premiere of the new documentary Downloaded at SXSW, about the rise and fall of their revolutionary music-sharing service, they were met with tremendous applause. That, says director Alex Winter (Bill from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, incidentally), was a moment of tremendous relief and vindication.
“The guys were just happy to see the public liked it,” says Winter, 47, who first met the tech entrepreneurs back in 2002 and has been working to bring Napster’s story to light for over a decade. He himself was an early...
“The guys were just happy to see the public liked it,” says Winter, 47, who first met the tech entrepreneurs back in 2002 and has been working to bring Napster’s story to light for over a decade. He himself was an early...
- 3/13/2013
- by Karen Valby
- EW - Inside Movies
"Downloaded," the first film selected by SXSW thanks to its perfect intersection of the festival's three themes of music, film and interactive technology, opens with the squelchy crunch of a dial-up modem, a sonic signifier of just how far we've come since 1998. The film by Alex Winter, formerly of "Bill and Ted" fame, tells of the rapid rise and dramatic fall of pioneer file-sharing tech, Napster.
"It could have been told from one perspective or the other, and so to make a documentary that had historical perspective and also tells both sides of the story in an objective way is difficult to do," noted infamous Napster co-founder Sean Parker after the world premiere screening at the Paramount theatre ended in rapturous applause. "Coming here, I wasn't sure how the audience would react, but it seemed like everyone was pretty into it. The guys in front of me were really into it,...
"It could have been told from one perspective or the other, and so to make a documentary that had historical perspective and also tells both sides of the story in an objective way is difficult to do," noted infamous Napster co-founder Sean Parker after the world premiere screening at the Paramount theatre ended in rapturous applause. "Coming here, I wasn't sure how the audience would react, but it seemed like everyone was pretty into it. The guys in front of me were really into it,...
- 3/11/2013
- by Huffington Post Music Canada
- Huffington Post
VH1′s Emmy winning Rock Docs series is back with Downloaded, a brand new documentary about the rise and eventual fall of Napster. The movie was directed by Alex Winter, who is (perhaps) best known for his role as Bill S. Preston Esq. in the two Bill & Ted movies. On the red carpet at the world premiere of his newest film last night, we stopped him on the red carpet and asked him about the rumors that he’s going to be re-teaming with Keanu Reeves for a new installment of the universally beloved movie franchise.
“I have [no updates],” he confided. “If I say the words ‘Bill’, ‘Ted’ and ‘And’ in a sentence, it gets turned into like a massive Twitter explosion. So I try to watch myself. But we’re working on a new movie, we’ll see what happens.”
We got a little bit more on the movie’s...
“I have [no updates],” he confided. “If I say the words ‘Bill’, ‘Ted’ and ‘And’ in a sentence, it gets turned into like a massive Twitter explosion. So I try to watch myself. But we’re working on a new movie, we’ll see what happens.”
We got a little bit more on the movie’s...
- 3/11/2013
- by Mark Graham
- TheFabLife - Movies
Austin, Texas — "Downloaded," a documentary film exploring the history of sharing music on the Internet, made its world premiere Sunday at South by Southwest, a festival that marries music, technology and film.
Director Alex Winter focuses on Napster, the file sharing network that allowed 25 million people to share 80 million recordings in what became an early social network. The service allowed users to download music for free from each other's computers until a lawsuit brought by the recording industry forced it to shut down in 2001.
But by then, a new generation had become accustomed to getting music for free, and the industry and musicians saw revenues plummet.
The founders of Napster, Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, participate in the film, but Winter allows all sides of the debate over free music to make their cases, often using archival news footage.
"It wasn't hard for me to balance the two points of view,...
Director Alex Winter focuses on Napster, the file sharing network that allowed 25 million people to share 80 million recordings in what became an early social network. The service allowed users to download music for free from each other's computers until a lawsuit brought by the recording industry forced it to shut down in 2001.
But by then, a new generation had become accustomed to getting music for free, and the industry and musicians saw revenues plummet.
The founders of Napster, Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, participate in the film, but Winter allows all sides of the debate over free music to make their cases, often using archival news footage.
"It wasn't hard for me to balance the two points of view,...
- 3/11/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
This story first appeared in the March 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter issue. Alex Winter was Keanu Reeves' co-star in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. But Bill and Ted never saw anything as cool as Winter's documentary Downloaded: The Digital Revolution, which receives its world premiere March 10 at the interactive/music/film South by Southwest Festival in Austin. It tells how two teenagers, Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, reinvented the music industry, got crushed and still managed to get rich with such game-changers as Facebook and Spotify. "It's the perfect movie for South by Southwest," says Winter, who
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- 3/7/2013
- by Tim Appelo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The digital music revolution started with Napster – the file-sharing service dreamt up by two teenagers in 1999. As a new film tells Napster's story, Tom Lamont recalls the incredible sense of liberation he felt as a young music fan, one of millions happily plundering the world's record collections…
In the first weeks of 2000 the founders of Napster were in their office above a bank in San Mateo, California, considering dizzying numbers. Figures scrawled on a whiteboard told how many people around the world had installed their file-sharing application and were using it to download music from each other's computers. As recounted in Downloaded – a documentary soon to premiere at the SXSW film festival, telling the story of a piece of software that came and went and whipped up a new digital music industry in its slip – Napster had 20 million users at the time. Some way from San Mateo, in suburban London...
In the first weeks of 2000 the founders of Napster were in their office above a bank in San Mateo, California, considering dizzying numbers. Figures scrawled on a whiteboard told how many people around the world had installed their file-sharing application and were using it to download music from each other's computers. As recounted in Downloaded – a documentary soon to premiere at the SXSW film festival, telling the story of a piece of software that came and went and whipped up a new digital music industry in its slip – Napster had 20 million users at the time. Some way from San Mateo, in suburban London...
- 2/24/2013
- by Tom Lamont
- The Guardian - Film News
Downloaded Trailer. Alex Winter‘s Downloaded (2012) movie trailer about Napster stars John Fanning, Shawn Fanning, Sean Parker, Lars Ulrich, and Henry Rollins. Downloaded‘s plot synopsis: “The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made [...]
Continue reading: Downloaded (2012) Movie Trailer: Alex Winter’s Documentary on Napster...
Continue reading: Downloaded (2012) Movie Trailer: Alex Winter’s Documentary on Napster...
- 12/9/2012
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
The Social Network told the fascinating story of how Facebook was created and the social turmoil/friendship destroying chaos it wrought. But Napster might be an even more compelling story, and now Alex Winter has made Downloaded, a documentary that will chart the ‘net revolution that followed. Check out the trailer above courtesy of Ain’t It Cool.What looks to be a fascinating stare into the creation of the infamous music-sharing service, Downloaded tracks what happened to the industry and the people who built the company in the first place.Interviewees include co-creators Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, along with a slew of music industry types, who express the arguments for and against, and some musicians themselves, with commentary from the likes of Henry Rollins and even Noel Gallagher.Winter has already shown solid chops behind the camera, and he’s chosen a compelling subject.Details on when and...
- 12/7/2012
- EmpireOnline
At a Spotify event in New York today, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and Napster co-founder Sean Parker buried the hatchet and announced that the legendary heavy metal band is making its entire catalogue available on Spotify, effective immediately.
In 2000, Metallica filed a $10 million lawsuit against Napster, accusing the file-sharing network created by teenage hacker Shawn Fanning and his friends of copyright infringement and racketeering. Napster ultimately filed for bankruptcy, but Metallica -- and, in particular, Ulrich, who acted as an unofficial band spokesman -- did not emerge unscathed. After Ulrich hand-delivered a 60,000-page list of users accused of trading unauthorized MP3's, Napster blocked more than 300,000 people from its service -- and blamed Metallica. If Napster's founders were portrayed as heedless pirates, Metallica wound up being tarred as rich rock stars who didn't appreciate their fans.
Over the past two years, Ulrich and Parker have formed an unlikely friendship --...
In 2000, Metallica filed a $10 million lawsuit against Napster, accusing the file-sharing network created by teenage hacker Shawn Fanning and his friends of copyright infringement and racketeering. Napster ultimately filed for bankruptcy, but Metallica -- and, in particular, Ulrich, who acted as an unofficial band spokesman -- did not emerge unscathed. After Ulrich hand-delivered a 60,000-page list of users accused of trading unauthorized MP3's, Napster blocked more than 300,000 people from its service -- and blamed Metallica. If Napster's founders were portrayed as heedless pirates, Metallica wound up being tarred as rich rock stars who didn't appreciate their fans.
Over the past two years, Ulrich and Parker have formed an unlikely friendship --...
- 12/6/2012
- by Kia Makarechi
- Huffington Post
Net-repreneurs Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning — best known as the kids who invented Napster in the ’90s — revealed their latest creation on June 5, a Facebook app cum video social network called Airtime. In a technical-gaffe-laden media launch event in New York, a string of celebrities (Olivia Munn, Joel McHale, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Ed Helms, Jim Carrey, among others) played along as video chats failed, PCs rebooted, and an exasperated Parker shook his head — as any vet of tech launches knows, these things happen to the best of them.
After an extended intro from Jimmy Fallon, Parker took the mic and presented...
After an extended intro from Jimmy Fallon, Parker took the mic and presented...
- 6/5/2012
- by Jon Chase
- EW.com - PopWatch
Whatever Napster founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning paid the celebrities who attended this morning's unveiling of their new video-chat application, it wasn't enough.
Olivia Munn, Joel McHale, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Helms and Jim Carrey were forced to flex every improvisational muscle they have in an effort to amuse an audience of skeptical tech bloggers and journalists as the demo for their new product, Airtime, failed one user-interaction test after another.
"I can't actually thank you guys enough," Parker told his celebrity helpers at the end of the session, "because you took a completely fucked-up situation where everything was going to shit and actually salvaged it."
Even that may have been a bit optimistic. Sure, the jokes helped soothe the pain of yet another tech P.R. fiasco -- coming in the wake of Facebook's gigantic I.P.Uh-oh -- but there was no disguising the fact that the Airtime...
Olivia Munn, Joel McHale, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Helms and Jim Carrey were forced to flex every improvisational muscle they have in an effort to amuse an audience of skeptical tech bloggers and journalists as the demo for their new product, Airtime, failed one user-interaction test after another.
"I can't actually thank you guys enough," Parker told his celebrity helpers at the end of the session, "because you took a completely fucked-up situation where everything was going to shit and actually salvaged it."
Even that may have been a bit optimistic. Sure, the jokes helped soothe the pain of yet another tech P.R. fiasco -- coming in the wake of Facebook's gigantic I.P.Uh-oh -- but there was no disguising the fact that the Airtime...
- 6/5/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning reunited Tuesday at a star-studded event to launch Airtime, a new live social video platform. The presentation was made at Milk Studios in New York and included references to the days when the two shook up the music business, a critique of the "dehumanizing" Internet as it exists today, their new service and lots of technical glitches. Parker and Fanning met as young teenagers in the mid-90s before launching Napster, the famous file-sharing company that attracted tens of millions of users and plenty of scorn from the entertainment industry.
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- 6/5/2012
- by Eriq Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On June 5, Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning will be unveiling their new service, Airtime. The reunited team sent out invitations to an event at Milk Studios in New York City as anticipation builds for the mysterious company. Should the entertainment industry brace itself for another "disruptive" technology? Maybe not. At the moment, leading speculation on the project is that it is a video service connecting live users akin to Chatroulette. On the other hand, Parker, who was also a founding president of Facebook and serves on the board of music streaming service Spotify, raised some eyebrows
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- 5/9/2012
- by Eriq Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This article first appeared in the May 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Napster: The pioneer file-sharing site was founded in June 1999 by Shawn Fanning, John Fanning and Sean Parker. At its peak in February 2001, Napster boasted 26.4 million users swapping mostly music (videos were too large for the slower Internet speeds of the time). Metallica, Dr. Dre and A&M Records separately sued Napster in 2000 for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. Napster lost the case brought by A&M, which was joined by other labels through the RIAA. When an appeals court affirmed the ruling, Napster
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- 5/2/2012
- by Daniel Miller
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alex Winter, one half of the 1980s duo known as Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Theodore Logan aka Wyld Stallyns aka Bill and Ted, has acted sparingly since the second movie, "Bogus Journey," choosing instead to focus on directing.
His latest project, "Downloaded," a documentary looking back at the genesis of popular file sharing site Napster, will be a subject of discussion at South by Southwest this year. Winter stopped by MTV News to fill us in on the documentary and shared his thoughts about Napster's impact on technology today.
"My passion about this was that the real Napster was online from '99 to 2002. It was the invention of peer-to-peer technology in a way that actually worked, meaning Shawn Fanning created Napster when he was 18. He had this vision bringing the whole world together via music and creating a global community," Winter said.
The director couldn't help but be...
His latest project, "Downloaded," a documentary looking back at the genesis of popular file sharing site Napster, will be a subject of discussion at South by Southwest this year. Winter stopped by MTV News to fill us in on the documentary and shared his thoughts about Napster's impact on technology today.
"My passion about this was that the real Napster was online from '99 to 2002. It was the invention of peer-to-peer technology in a way that actually worked, meaning Shawn Fanning created Napster when he was 18. He had this vision bringing the whole world together via music and creating a global community," Winter said.
The director couldn't help but be...
- 3/9/2012
- by Kevin P. Sullivan
- MTV Movies Blog
Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the two founders of Napster, have teamed up to launch another internet startup. Fanning and Parker are currently raising money for a venture called Airtime, which is thought to be a video-chatting service similar to Chatroulette, but with a social network attached. They have already raised $$8m (£5m) to launch the service, with investors including movie star Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber's agent Scott Braun and Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am. Airtime is expected to go live by the end of 2011. Parker, who has previously backed Facebook and Plaxo, told TechCrunch that Airtime was designed to capitalise on all the developments in social media over the past ten years. In an interview with the technology blog last week, Parker said that the service (more)...
- 10/10/2011
- by By Andrew Laughlin
- Digital Spy
Famously known as Bill to Keanu Reeves' Ted, Alex Winter is making a documentary about the rise and fall of Napster.
The Bill & Ted star had originally envisaged the film as a fictional drama but now, with the backing of VH1, he is gathering his sources armed with a camera.
Winter told Deadline, “Napster and the birth of file sharing technology made possible everything from Wikileaks to Facebook.
“It became an expression of youth revolt and contributed to a complete shift in how information, media and governments work.
Shawn Fanning, who was 18 when he invented the service, is involved with the documentary, along with co-founder and early employee Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network.)
Napster felt the full weight of the record companies’ legal machines after allowing users to download MP3s for free, which will be the backbone for the film.
Label heads and...
The Bill & Ted star had originally envisaged the film as a fictional drama but now, with the backing of VH1, he is gathering his sources armed with a camera.
Winter told Deadline, “Napster and the birth of file sharing technology made possible everything from Wikileaks to Facebook.
“It became an expression of youth revolt and contributed to a complete shift in how information, media and governments work.
Shawn Fanning, who was 18 when he invented the service, is involved with the documentary, along with co-founder and early employee Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network.)
Napster felt the full weight of the record companies’ legal machines after allowing users to download MP3s for free, which will be the backbone for the film.
Label heads and...
- 8/24/2011
- by editorial@lovefilm.com (Amelia Rosenthal)
- LOVEFiLM
Napster changed the face of the music business, and its ramifications are still being felt thanks to a generation who grew up thinking downloading music for free was Ok. The story behind it, and of its creator Shawn Fanning, just screams out for a movie adaptation. Unfortunately, The Social Network sort of went with the same “game-changing technology” premise and now any Napster narrative feature will just look like a rip-off.
Alex Winter, famously Bill of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but also an accomplished writer/director, understands this and has shifted gears. Deadline reports that Winter’s Napster project which was originally going to be a feature film, is now becoming a documentary instead. Winter is shooting it with the backing of VH1, who were famously behind the 2008 documentary Anvil!: The Story of Anvil. Here’s what Winter told Mike Fleming of Deadline about the project:
The...
Alex Winter, famously Bill of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but also an accomplished writer/director, understands this and has shifted gears. Deadline reports that Winter’s Napster project which was originally going to be a feature film, is now becoming a documentary instead. Winter is shooting it with the backing of VH1, who were famously behind the 2008 documentary Anvil!: The Story of Anvil. Here’s what Winter told Mike Fleming of Deadline about the project:
The...
- 8/24/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Alex Winter is making a new movie. Unfortunately, it's not Bill and Ted 3 [1] just yet. Instead, Winter is getting back behind the camera to make a movie about the rise of fall of the legendary (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) music sharing sharing service Napster. Winter had been developing the story as a narrative screenplay for the better part of a decade but now, with the backing of VH1, he'll do it as a documentary. Both Shawn Fanning and Shawn Parker will be part of the project. Read more about it after the jump. Deadline [2] broke the news of this upcoming film and spoke to Winter about it: The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from Julian Assange, WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook.
- 8/23/2011
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
Alex Winter, best known as Bill from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, is finally directing his long-in-development project on Napster as a documentary, backed by VH1. It was once conceived as a narrative film, but plans fell through a few years back.
“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from Julian Assange, WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook,” Winter told Deadline. “It became an expression of youth revolt, and contributed to a complete shift in how information, media and governments work. And it is a fascinating human story, where this 18-year-old kid invents a peer-to-peer file-sharing system, and brings it to the world six months later.” And yes, Shawn Fanning is on-board in support of the project.
“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from Julian Assange, WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook,” Winter told Deadline. “It became an expression of youth revolt, and contributed to a complete shift in how information, media and governments work. And it is a fascinating human story, where this 18-year-old kid invents a peer-to-peer file-sharing system, and brings it to the world six months later.” And yes, Shawn Fanning is on-board in support of the project.
- 8/23/2011
- by Jon Peters
- Killer Films
Alex Winter is directing a movie about the formation of controversial music file-sharing service Napster. Deadline reports that the Bill and Ted actor-turned director is has been tyring to make a narrative feature film for 10 years, and is finally moving forward on thei project with the help of VH1. The film is plannned as a documentary and is being made by the same people who brought us 2008’s Anvil: The Story of Anvil.
Winter originally inked a deal with Paramount’s MTV Films and wrote a script, but then The Social Network was released that took the wind out of the project. Instead of giving up, Winter has now going back to all the sources for his script, armed with a camera.
Here is what Winter had to say:
“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student,...
Winter originally inked a deal with Paramount’s MTV Films and wrote a script, but then The Social Network was released that took the wind out of the project. Instead of giving up, Winter has now going back to all the sources for his script, armed with a camera.
Here is what Winter had to say:
“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student,...
- 8/23/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
Alex Winter, who started his career as half of the Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure tandem before transitioning to director of commercials and TV shows, is finally helming a movie about the formation of controversial music file-sharing service Napster. The surprise is that after 10 years of trying to make a narrative feature, Winter’s shooting it as a documentary backed by VH1, the same division that made 2008’s Anvil: The Story of Anvil. Winter originally made his deal with Paramount’s MTV Films and wrote a script, only to watch that division crater and see his birth of a technological revolution storyline drive The Social Network, which even had early Napster pioneer Shawn Parker in a key role. Rather than scrap Napster, Winter is going back to all the sources for his script, armed with a camera. “The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing...
- 8/23/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Dave Morin’s desk, which he took and posted to Path, documents the launch of the company. | Photograph courtesy of Dave Morin (path).
How Dave Morin decided to launch a new, more personal network.
I'm Watching Dave Morin experience a moment. Actually, a series of moments. Working in front of a glowing computer at 4 a.m. Hunting for the perfect office space. Considering a plate of French toast. Helicopter skiing in Baldface, in Canada. There is even a short film called Cab With Brittany Bohnet, a perfect eight seconds of moody nighttime transit, illuminated intermittently by passing streetlights and the taxi dashboard.
I've been enjoying Morin's moments on Path, the personal network he cofounded and which left beta last November. By uploading photos through the Path app and then annotating them, users are able to share such "moments" with an intimate group of no more than 50 people. Compared to the...
How Dave Morin decided to launch a new, more personal network.
I'm Watching Dave Morin experience a moment. Actually, a series of moments. Working in front of a glowing computer at 4 a.m. Hunting for the perfect office space. Considering a plate of French toast. Helicopter skiing in Baldface, in Canada. There is even a short film called Cab With Brittany Bohnet, a perfect eight seconds of moody nighttime transit, illuminated intermittently by passing streetlights and the taxi dashboard.
I've been enjoying Morin's moments on Path, the personal network he cofounded and which left beta last November. By uploading photos through the Path app and then annotating them, users are able to share such "moments" with an intimate group of no more than 50 people. Compared to the...
- 5/9/2011
- by Ellen McGirt
- Fast Company
The career networking app's CEO says Facebook will be dominated by "utilities" in the years to come, starting with ones like this.
About the "Baked In" series: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to say that social dynamics are going to work their way into every industry, and the companies of the future will be the ones that bake them in from the beginning, rather than slapping them on as an afterthought. This series takes a look at companies that are discovering new opportunities by using social components in the foundations of their businesses.
Back in 2003, LinkedIn made a splash when it created a way for professionals to network online. Eight years later, it is the dominant way white-collar America connects. But now, just as it’s headed for an Ipo, it could be in danger of being unseated by an upstart that is not even a year old.
BranchOut works...
About the "Baked In" series: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to say that social dynamics are going to work their way into every industry, and the companies of the future will be the ones that bake them in from the beginning, rather than slapping them on as an afterthought. This series takes a look at companies that are discovering new opportunities by using social components in the foundations of their businesses.
Back in 2003, LinkedIn made a splash when it created a way for professionals to network online. Eight years later, it is the dominant way white-collar America connects. But now, just as it’s headed for an Ipo, it could be in danger of being unseated by an upstart that is not even a year old.
BranchOut works...
- 2/18/2011
- by E.B. Boyd
- Fast Company
One of the most interesting performances in a film this year was Justin Timberlake's take on Napster co-founder and Facebook supporter Sean Parker, who was portrayed as both a street-smart marketing genius and a paranoid borderline sociopath. While the movie focuses on Facebook, the film about the development of Napster would likely be just as compelling, though the narrative wouldn't be so much about internal strife as it would be about outside challenges and the discussion about whether or not Napster was ever good for the music industry (most record label types would say no, while college students who didn't want to blow perfectly good burrito money on a legit copies of the Bob Marley discography would say yes). On this day in 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America filed suit against Napster for copyright infringement, kick-starting an epic legal battle that would take years to resolve.
Napster was...
Napster was...
- 12/7/2010
- by Kyle Anderson
- MTV Newsroom
Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.
The Oscar-bait movie season is well underway, and the biggest hit (both critically and commercially) so far has been "The Social Network," the somewhat-made-up biopic about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that stars Jesse Eisenberg and is directed by David Fincher. The movie is getting accolades from all sides for its writing, direction and performances, including the one delivered by pop star turned movie star Justin Timberlake. The former *Nsync member plays Sean Parker, a vaguely fictionalized version of Napster founder Shawn Fanning who helps turn Zuckerberg's dorm room creation into a multi-billion dollar project. Timberlake's performance is fantastically dynamic, sharp and funny, and...
The Oscar-bait movie season is well underway, and the biggest hit (both critically and commercially) so far has been "The Social Network," the somewhat-made-up biopic about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that stars Jesse Eisenberg and is directed by David Fincher. The movie is getting accolades from all sides for its writing, direction and performances, including the one delivered by pop star turned movie star Justin Timberlake. The former *Nsync member plays Sean Parker, a vaguely fictionalized version of Napster founder Shawn Fanning who helps turn Zuckerberg's dorm room creation into a multi-billion dollar project. Timberlake's performance is fantastically dynamic, sharp and funny, and...
- 10/8/2010
- by MTV News
- MTV Newsroom
Sean Parker is already famous in today's Web-connected tech world, mythical perhaps. He was around at the start of Napster, Facebook, and more recently Chatroulette. But Parker's getting even more famous thanks to a profile in Vanity Fair, and the upcoming Facebook movie.
The movie is The Social Network, David Fincher's biopic about the birth of Facebook--already controversial because of its portrayal of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But Sean Parker, a speaker at our Fast Company Innovation Uncensored conference, played an absolutely crucial role at several pivotal moments in Facebook's early history. One example: a huge argument in a branch of Silicon Valley Bank over whether or not his partner Zuckerberg should go back to finish studies at Harvard--Zuckerberg was unsure, Parker was convinced about Facebook's future (Mark stayed). So Parker gets a starring role in the movie too--played by Justin Timberlake.
Vanity Fair's David Kirkpatrick delves deeper into Parker's life,...
The movie is The Social Network, David Fincher's biopic about the birth of Facebook--already controversial because of its portrayal of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But Sean Parker, a speaker at our Fast Company Innovation Uncensored conference, played an absolutely crucial role at several pivotal moments in Facebook's early history. One example: a huge argument in a branch of Silicon Valley Bank over whether or not his partner Zuckerberg should go back to finish studies at Harvard--Zuckerberg was unsure, Parker was convinced about Facebook's future (Mark stayed). So Parker gets a starring role in the movie too--played by Justin Timberlake.
Vanity Fair's David Kirkpatrick delves deeper into Parker's life,...
- 9/8/2010
- by Kit Eaton
- Fast Company
While American soccer fans toast their 1-1 win over England on Saturday night, innovation didn't really care, because it was inventing a new ballgame to be played in a new ballpark. With four-legged hairdroids.
1. In advance of his meeting with British Petroleum--sorry, Bp--execs on Wednesday, Obama is working out just how to make Bp pay. The President, who calls the spill nature's 9/11, will be addressing the American nation from the Oval Office tomorrow, and one wonders whether he'll have an answer to the question on most people's lips: Just how long will it take to halt the flow of oil from the leak?
2. While the media buzz around Andrey Ternovskiy's ChatRoulette site may have abated somewhat, it's still mighty popular. Just not as popular as before--the reason for this being the amount of willy-waving on the site. But the teenage founder may have an answer to this: penis-sensing software, and...
1. In advance of his meeting with British Petroleum--sorry, Bp--execs on Wednesday, Obama is working out just how to make Bp pay. The President, who calls the spill nature's 9/11, will be addressing the American nation from the Oval Office tomorrow, and one wonders whether he'll have an answer to the question on most people's lips: Just how long will it take to halt the flow of oil from the leak?
2. While the media buzz around Andrey Ternovskiy's ChatRoulette site may have abated somewhat, it's still mighty popular. Just not as popular as before--the reason for this being the amount of willy-waving on the site. But the teenage founder may have an answer to this: penis-sensing software, and...
- 6/14/2010
- by Addy Dugdale
- Fast Company
Photographs: Getty Images (Aibo, sock puppet, iMac, e-book, Gore, Sega console) ; Alamy (Zip disk)
A voice from yesteryear calls out through the decade -- via his iBook with a 56k modem on Al Gore's series of tubes -- to see how far we've come.
December 31, 1999, 11:59 p.m.
Hello, people of 2010, and congratulations on finding this time capsule!
I'm writing this chronicle of my era to the sweet clackety-clack of the keyboard on my state-of-the-art Apple iBook. Can you imagine? 366 MHz? This thing's faster than a jackrabbit on a date! And unlike the iMac, it's not like I put a Vw Beetle on my desk. I only hope I'm able to reboot after midnight.
You probably think the folks back in 1999 were a bunch of clods communicating through a series of interconnected tubes. Not true. We prefer to be called e-clods or cyberclods. As you can see, we used a...
A voice from yesteryear calls out through the decade -- via his iBook with a 56k modem on Al Gore's series of tubes -- to see how far we've come.
December 31, 1999, 11:59 p.m.
Hello, people of 2010, and congratulations on finding this time capsule!
I'm writing this chronicle of my era to the sweet clackety-clack of the keyboard on my state-of-the-art Apple iBook. Can you imagine? 366 MHz? This thing's faster than a jackrabbit on a date! And unlike the iMac, it's not like I put a Vw Beetle on my desk. I only hope I'm able to reboot after midnight.
You probably think the folks back in 1999 were a bunch of clods communicating through a series of interconnected tubes. Not true. We prefer to be called e-clods or cyberclods. As you can see, we used a...
- 12/30/2009
- by RooftopComedy
- Fast Company
The 2nd Annual All In for ‘Cerebral Palsy’ Celebrity Poker Tournament took place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas last weekend, where a host of celebrities gathered to play Texas Hold ’Em and raise money for the One Step Closer Foundation.
Hosted by Jennifer Tilly, the event attracted actors Dean Cain, Shannon Elizabeth, Glenn Morshower and TV personality Montel Williams, as well as Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, Napster creator Shawn Fanning and poker professionals Jamie Gold, Barry Greenstein, Pam and Todd Brunson, and Phil Laak among many others.
The tournament, created by Jacob Zalewski, aims to help those who, like himself, suffer from Cerebral Palsy.
Read more...
Hosted by Jennifer Tilly, the event attracted actors Dean Cain, Shannon Elizabeth, Glenn Morshower and TV personality Montel Williams, as well as Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, Napster creator Shawn Fanning and poker professionals Jamie Gold, Barry Greenstein, Pam and Todd Brunson, and Phil Laak among many others.
The tournament, created by Jacob Zalewski, aims to help those who, like himself, suffer from Cerebral Palsy.
Read more...
- 12/16/2009
- Look to the Stars
DENVER -- Snocap, the online digital music registry that first promised to revolutionize P2P networks and then transform social networking sites into music stores, is facing some major changes.
A company spokeswoman has confirmed reports that the company is laying off 60% of its workforce and is considering selling the company to a third party after receiving interest from "several" companies.
The development is just the latest for a company that has seen significant ups and downs in its relatively short history. Founded by former Napster creator Shawn Fanning and others, Snocap's business model made sense on paper and raised a lot of eyebrows but has yet to strike a lasting chord in today's chaotic digital music space.
The company originally tried to monetize P2P networks by implementing an identification and filtering system. Labels who allowed songs to be traded would receive compensation by the service operator, while those that didn't could simply block the download.
The first such "authorized" P2P service to support the system, Mashboxx, practically built its entire business model around the capability but never launched a live service.
A company spokeswoman has confirmed reports that the company is laying off 60% of its workforce and is considering selling the company to a third party after receiving interest from "several" companies.
The development is just the latest for a company that has seen significant ups and downs in its relatively short history. Founded by former Napster creator Shawn Fanning and others, Snocap's business model made sense on paper and raised a lot of eyebrows but has yet to strike a lasting chord in today's chaotic digital music space.
The company originally tried to monetize P2P networks by implementing an identification and filtering system. Labels who allowed songs to be traded would receive compensation by the service operator, while those that didn't could simply block the download.
The first such "authorized" P2P service to support the system, Mashboxx, practically built its entire business model around the capability but never launched a live service.
- 10/13/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Foglight Entertainment co-founder Jeff Bowler and partner William MacDonald have launched a new production company, Typhoon Entertainment, which has inked a first-look deal with Fox TV Studios. Under the pact, Typhoon is developing I'm in the ..., a reality series project for VH1; a back-to-school reality project; and a scripted drama series loosely based on the feature The Negotiator. Spinning off Typhoon was a result of the decision by Foglight's principals to split the company's two businesses -- the New York-based production facility business spearheaded by co-founder Gregg Backer, who will continue as the head of Foglight, and the Los Angeles-based creative division, whose producing credits include VH1's series Driven, the HBO/BBC series Rome and MTV's upcoming biopic of Napster founder Shawn Fanning.
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