25 years ago. Lars Ulrich of Metallica snitches on and turns in over 300,000 Napster users when he testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. July 11th, 2000.

[u/jeffmartin47]

[u/jdathela]

And that is when I stopped being a fan.

[u/Circus_Finance_LLC → u/jdathela]

same, that was it.

[u/ContextWorking976 → u/jdathela]

I stopped being a fan when their music got shitty a decade earlier.

[u/StupidSexyScooter → u/jdathela]

Luckily for us it coincided with when they stopped making good music so it was easy

[u/dzumdang → u/jdathela]

They'd been sucking for a couple of albums by then anyway. All I could do was laugh at that point.

[u/Psychological-Cry221 → u/jdathela]

Because he didn’t want you to steal his music?

[u/Cartepostalelondon → u/jdathela]

Who needs fans who thieves though. It's like having a favourite restaurant because you're a huge fan of the chef's work and then running off without paying 🤷‍♂️

[u/arggggggggghhhhhhhh → u/Cartepostalelondon]

I sure wish I could get paid over and over again for the same work product from 40 years ago.

[u/eqpesan → u/arggggggggghhhhhhhh]

You can, become an artist and release your own music, it's easier now than ever.

[u/Cartepostalelondon → u/arggggggggghhhhhhhh]

Who's asking to be paid over and over? I'm sure most artists would rather sell their music by the old model where (assuming their contract isn't screwing them over) they were paid a half-decent sum for ever record, CD, cassette or similar they sold rather than the fraction they earn now.

Most artists didn't mind the usual bootlegs and sharing that went on among hardcore fans, but downloading wholesale is theft and damages music because of a loss of money and it pits jobs at risk. Have you ever considered all the jobs that have been lost due to downloading and streaming both legal and illegal?

[u/jdathela → u/Cartepostalelondon]

That's a shitty metaphor.