By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO — Twenty-five years after Napster delighted music fans and terrified the entertainment industry by delivering millions of songs free to anyone, the people behind the short-lived but revolutionary start-up gathered last week to reminisce and consider the unexpected legacies of one of the dot-com boom’s signal ventures.

Its trajectory was brief but glorious. Napster was founded in 1999 and sued by the record industry that December. It grew explosively in 2000 during court proceedings and drew 85 million registered users before it was forced to shut down in mid-2001. By then, the music industry had been permanently changed, with the long-dominant record labels weakened and a new balance struck between content and technology. Paid Promoted Stories Stanford

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