Morpheus was a file sharing

File sharing

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...

 and searching peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...

 client for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, developed and distributed by the company StreamCast

StreamCast Networks

StreamCast Networks, Inc., was an American corporation, specializing in peer-to-peer software.Formerly named MusicCity, it created Morpheus, which was one of the first major peer-to-peer applications....

, that originally used the Opennap

Opennap

OpenNap is a peer-to-peer service server software. It was created as an open source Napster server, extending the Napster protocol to allow sharing of any media type, and adding the ability to link servers together.-History:...

 protocol, but later supported many different peer-to-peer protocols. On April 22, 2008, distributor StreamCast Networks filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 after a long legal battle with music companies; all of their employees were laid off and the official download at www.morpheus.com stopped being available, though for a small period the website remained online. As of October 29, 2008 the official Morpheus website is offline, including all other websites owned by StreamCast Networks including Morpheus.com, MusicCity.com, Streamcastnetworks.com and NeoNetwork.com

Download restriction

Currently, Morpheus redirects a user attempting to download unauthorized copyrighted music and movie files to a site with purchase links for music.

Availability

Users of the Morpheus community have set up a website where you are still able to download the Morpheus software. At that site, there is a support forum and support chatroom setup from the site and within the client.

Presence of adware/spyware

The current version of Morpheus, version 5.5.1, contains no adware or spyware, and no additional software is bundled with Morpheus. However, when Morpheus is open and running, the interface contains online ads that support the application.

During installation, an optional peer-to-peer Morpheus Toolbar is offered. Both the Morpheus application and the Morpheus Toolbar are easily uninstalled with Windows Add/Remove Programs commands, however this is not the case with previous versions.

Version 5.3 didn't install adware

Adware

Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...

 or spyware

Spyware

Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...

, though it did install some Desktop shortcuts to adware websites and the Morpheus Toolbar without user approval.

In popular culture

• Weird Al
  "Weird Al" Yankovic
  Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
  
   mentions Morpheus in Don't Download This Song
  Don't Download This Song
  "Don't Download This Song" is the first single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's 12th studio album Straight Outta Lynwood. The song was released exclusively on August 21, 2006 as a digital download. It is a style parody of "We Are the World", "Voices That Care", "Hands Across America", "Heal the World"...
  
  .

External links

• Morpheus 5.2.3
• Morpheus Forum
• MGM v. Grokster case documents
• MGM v. Grokster Ninth Circuit oral argument transcript
• MGM v Grokster Day 1 - Coverage from MP3 Newswire
  MP3 Newswire
  Founded in 1998, the same year as MP3.com, MP3 Newswire is the oldest active news site devoted to digital media technology. Notable for its series of essays that chronicled the rise of digital music and the Internet’s acrimonious relationship with the record industry, MP3 Newswire initially was...
  
   on the first day of the Supreme Court trial.
• Advanced Peer-Based Technology Business Models. Ghosemajumder, Shuman
  Shuman Ghosemajumder
  Shuman Ghosemajumder is a Canadian technologist, entrepreneur, and author. He is the former click fraud czar at Google, the author of works on digital distribution including the Open Music Model, and co-founder of TeachAIDS.-Early life:...
  
  . MIT Sloan School of Management
  MIT Sloan School of Management
  The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
  
  , 2002.
• Morpheus forums (at GnutellaForums.com)