Shawn Fanning

Shawn Fanning (born 1980) developed Napster, the first popular peer-to-peer filesharing platform. Fanning developed the program while attending Boston's Northeastern University. Fanning made the cover of Wired magazine and rose to fame but soon Napster was the target of several music industry backed lawsuits, which ultimately ended up causing the cessation of the service.

Fanning recently launched a new company, Snocap, Inc. aimed at keeping track of music for copyright holders.