FastTrack: The Business of Piracy

Abstract

The history of FastTrack is convoluted at best. It is a narrative that includes a variety of court cases spanning many years and multiple nations. Multiple companies with varying degrees of technology ownership and responsibility make pinning down its historical trajectory tricky. The FastTrack period can be understood as the boom of P2P file-sharing. Napster had introduced the habits of digital media consumption to a mass audience. GNUtella followed and established a background workshop of open-source P2P innovation. The sphere of P2P file-sharing was ready for someone to try to establish the P2P network as a legitimate method of media distribution. An audience of users had been established and the technology had been honed. This focus on the exploitation of P2P networks would provide the basis for the shifting of technologies developed under the illicit banner of piracy and into wider operation within the cultural industries.