Question: In which year did the US-American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor who founded SNOCAP develop one of the first peer-to-peer file sharing platforms?

Context paragraphs:
BitTorrent tracker: A BitTorrent tracker is a special type of server, one that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol.  In peer-to-peer file sharing, a software client on an end-user PC requests a file, and portions of the requested file residing on peer machines are sent to the client, and then reassembled into a full copy of the requested file.  The "tracker" server keeps track of where file copies reside on peer machines, which ones are available at time of the client request, and helps coordinate efficient transmission and reassembly of the copied file.  Clients that have already begun downloading a file communicate with the tracker periodically to negotiate faster file transfer with new peers, and provide network performance statistics; however, after the initial peer-to-peer file download is started, peer-to-peer communication can continue without the connection to a tracker.  Since the creation of the distributed hash table (DHT) method for "Trackerless" torrents, BitTorrent trackers have largely become redundant, however, they are still often included with torrents to improve the speed of peer discovery.

AXXo: aXXo is the Internet alias of an individual who released and standardized commercial film DVDs as free downloads on the Internet between 2005 and 2009.  The files, which were usually new films, were popular among the file sharing community using peer-to-peer file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent.  A download-tracking firm BigChampagne found - in a sampling period in late 2008 - that almost 33.5% of all movie downloads were aXXo torrents.  aXXo encoded files to approximately 700 MB – the same size for a compact disc.  Due to the re-encoded quality of an aXXo file, the suffix "aXXo" was often used by imitators.

Shawn Fanning: Shawn Fanning (born November 22, 1980) is an US-American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor.  He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing platforms, in 1999.  The popularity of Napster was widespread and Fanning was featured on the cover of "Time" magazine.

Gnutella: Gnutella ( with a silent "g", but often ) (possibly by analogy with the GNU Project) is a large peer-to-peer network.  It was the first decentralized peer-to-peer network of its kind, leading to other, later networks adopting the model.  It celebrated a decade of existence on March 14, 2010 and has a user base in the millions for peer-to-peer file sharing.

Grokster: Grokster Ltd. was a privately owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies that created the Grokster peer-to-peer file-sharing client in 2001 that utilized the FastTrack protocol.  Grokster Ltd. was rendered extinct in late 2005 by the United States Supreme Court's decision in "MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd." The court ruled against Grokster's peer-to-peer file sharing program for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, effectively forcing the company to cease operations.  The product was similar in look and feel to Kazaa, which is marketed by Sharman Networks, and Morpheus, which was distributed by StreamCast.  Grokster, along with Morpheus and Kazaa, are considered second-generation peer-to-peer file sharing programs because unlike their predecessor Napster these file sharing programs allowed users to trade files directly between one another without these transactions passing through a centralized server.  Because Napster maintained this fraction of control over the transaction of files through its server it was ruled illegal because it should have exercised its power over the server to stop the sharing of copyright infringing files.  Grokster and this second generation of peer-to-peer file sharing programs sought to avoid this legal obstacle.

Peer-to-peer file sharing: Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology.  P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program that searches for other connected computers on a P2P network to locate the desired content.  The nodes (peers) of such networks are end-user computers and distribution servers (not required).

MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.: MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005) , is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court unanimously held that defendant peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast (maker of Morpheus) could be sued for inducing copyright infringement for acts taken in the course of marketing file sharing software.  The plaintiffs were a consortium of 28 of the largest entertainment companies (led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios).

You can click, but you can't hide: You can click, but you can't hide is a publicity campaign run jointly by several international associations, most notably the MPA, the MPAA, and the GVU, as part of the larger ""Respect Copyrights"" campaign against peer-to-peer file sharing of motion pictures.  The associations have long alleged that Internet file sharing, or maintaining a file sharing tracker, network or search engine, constitutes copyright infringement because the practice hurts their profits.

Comparison of file sharing applications: File sharing is a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media.  Below is a list of file sharing applications, most of them make use of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.

SNOCAP: SNOCAP was founded by Shawn Fanning (best known for creating the Napster music service), Jordan Mendelson, and Ron Conway.  Other SNOCAP employees included music lawyer Christian Castle, the company's first General Counsel, and Ali Aydar, the company's Chief Operating Officer, who joined imeem after its acquisition of SNOCAP in April 2008.

Supporting paragraphs: SNOCAP Shawn Fanning
Answer: 1999