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It's 1998

1998 inside a dorm room at Northeastern University in Boston.

18-year-old Sean Fanning taps away feverishly at its PC keyboard, his pale face illuminated

by a glowing screen. Sean, an amateur computer programmer, is working on something that's been

taking up more and more of his time lately, an idea for a new piece of software that allows users to share digital music files for free.

Sean takes a slur from his soda cup.

His dorm is cluttered with stacks of unread books and piles of dirty clothes.

Ever since he started building the software,

Sean studies, as well as his personal hygiene hygiene have fallen by the wayside.

Deciding to take a break from coding, Sean instead logs into an internet chat room.

This is where Sean feels most comfortable among his fellow

computer wizzes. He types out a message outlining his idea for the music sharing

platform. He explains that right now pulling MP3 files off the internet is time-consuming and unreliable.

If people could share their digital music libraries, users would have immediate access to millions

of songs without having to buy CDs. But to Sean's disappointment,

nobody in the chat room seems to share his vision, except for one individual.

A message appears on Sean's screen.

It's from 19-year-old Sean Parker, a precocious young tech entrepreneur from California.

...