In the summer of 1999, Scour gained the backing of Michael Ovitz, former Disney president and Hollywood agent--a development that industry analysts thought might help it gain the support of the movie industry.

Then, in the spring of 2000, after Napster rocked the music industry with its MusicShare software, Scour released its own peer-to-peer program, the Scour Exchange. With the tagline, "Mine! Mine! It's all mine! Music. Movies. Pictures.," Scour Exchange gained an estimated user base of 5 million.

According to David A. Fries '01, one of the main reasons Scour appealed to him was the availability of video files in addition to music.

"Of course, I used Napster too, but you couldn't get video there," Fries says. "When I'd log into Scour Exchange, there were sometimes up to 40 terabytes of files on there, and a lot more variety [than other programs]."

Scour also gained in popularity at schools, such as Yale, that had restricted traffic to and from Napster's servers on their network.

But by allowing its users to swap full-length movies, television shows, music videos and songs, the company became an easy target for lawsuits from the recording and movie industries.

In July, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) sued Scour, claiming that the company's software facilitated massive copyright violations and was therefore illegal. The Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) joined the MPAA's lawsuit soon after.

Before the lawsuit was tried, however, it proved enough of a financial drain and a deterrent to potential investors that the company was forced to lay off more than 80 percent of its employees in September.