Napster pulls plug on copyrighted music
Napster pulls plug on copyrighted music
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters): Napster Inc., facing a corporate death sentence at the hands of a federal judge, bought itself a brief reprieve on Friday by promising to block users from accessing some one million music files covered by recording industry copyrights.
Some industry analysts said, however, that the online music song-swap service may still be singing its swan song.
Napster's last-ditch effort to conform with copyright law came as U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel held a hearing on how to formulate an injunction which fans fear could put the it out of business.
Patel ended the hearing with a promise to draft an injunction order "that is workable and makes sense" -- but gave no indication when she might issue it. Legal observers do not expect a lengthy wait.
Meanwhile, Napster's vow to filter out copyrighted music files starting this weekend sparked cries of protest from users, who have made the service wildly popular around the world by trading everything from Chinese pop songs to Beethoven symphonies compressed into handy MP3 computer files.
"Oh my God. I'd better finish downloading," said one Napster devotee scrambling to grab as much music as possible before the screening system takes effect.
Napster's lead attorney, David Boies, said the new copyright protection system should allow the company to stay in business -- although many industry analysts questioned whether Napster would still have the same appeal if it no longer offers the world's top pop hits for free.
"I think Napster will still be the best music service out there, (but) it will not be the same," Boies said.
Napster's offer came amid some two hours of argument from its lawyers and representatives of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has sued the Internet upstart on charges of facilitating widespread music piracy.
Industry analysts said while Napster's move may have won it more time to negotiate with the recording industry, it did not mark a sure path to survival for the company.
Although the two sides have scheduled more mediation next week, Napster's decision to play by recording industry rules could weaken its overall negotiating position while driving once- loyal users to other services, they said.
"I'm sure that Napster usage will be very high this weekend and it will be interesting to see the cat-and-mouse games as users try to get around the blocking schemes," said Malcolm Maclachlan, analyst with technology tracking firm International Data Corp. "The main effect will be to grow usage on other peer- to-peer networks like Aimster and Gnutella."