March 2 — Napster, fighting for its life against the powerful recording industry in court Friday, told a judge that it will block access to illegally copied songs traded through its Web site this weekend. Lawyers for the hugely popular music-swapping service made the offer in an effort to keep the service from being shut down as U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel decides Napster’s fate.
MUCH OF THE HEARING before Judge Patel centered on how Napster would screen its system and whether the company or the industry bears the burden of determining which songs should be barred.
Russell Frackman, an attorney for the Recording Industry Association of America, said Napster should start by blocking the swapping of Billboard Top 100 singles and Top 200 albums, and by policing its system to keep those lists current. The RIAA delivered titles of about 6,500 copyrighted songs, but the screening system could block up to 1 million songs.
Napster attorney David Boies offered the screening system as a quick fix to keep Napster open as it faces a copyright infringement suit.
After the hearing, Hilary Rosen, the RIAA’s chief executive, told reporters that Napster’s filtering system “has the potential to be effective, but we’ll see.”
Whether Judge Patel buys Napster’s proposal isn’t clear yet, but Internet strategists say a screening system in its software won’t keep savvy users from sharing pirated songs. Filters are easy to work around with different names, observers note.
“There is no way that Napster can know what the contents of a file are; all they can screen is the text of the file name,” says Greg Meyers, adjunct professor at The Wharton School, specializing in e-commerce. “Anybody could encrypt a different name, or someone could easily put an ampersand or other symbol [in the file name] or spell the artist’s name wrong.”
Meanwhile, music fans were furiously downloading songs Friday in anticipation of Napster’s shutdown. More than 8,500 people were sharing more than 1.7 million files through just one of Napster’s more than 50 servers.
Napster’s service has attracted about 60 million users, who swap songs for free by trading MP3 files, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small digital files.
The landmark court battle is seen as a defining case for copyright law in cyberspace, affecting the way books, movies and all entertainment will be distributed online.
A FAIR RESOLUTION?
The dispute returned to U.S. District Court in San Francisco Friday, where Patel told lawyers for Napster and the recording industry that she was seeking a fair and workable way of enforcing copyright protections.
“The reason for this hearing today is to discuss not what if, but what an injunction should look like,” Patel said.
Napster’s lawyers said the company was racing to develop new software to filter out copyrighted material and hoped soon to reach agreement with the recording industry on how to identify such material.
“We have come considerably closer together on the issue of an injunction,” attorney Boies said.
Lawyers for the recording industry, meanwhile, urged Patel not to delay the injunction in hopes that these technical issues might soon be resolved.
Want to learn MORE?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/537641.asp
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"I'd like an order of fries, a quarter pounder with cheese, I love the light in your eyes, would you go out with me please? I am in love with a McDonald's Girl, she has a smile of innocence so tender and warm, she is an angel in a polyester uniform."
MUCH OF THE HEARING before Judge Patel centered on how Napster would screen its system and whether the company or the industry bears the burden of determining which songs should be barred.
Russell Frackman, an attorney for the Recording Industry Association of America, said Napster should start by blocking the swapping of Billboard Top 100 singles and Top 200 albums, and by policing its system to keep those lists current. The RIAA delivered titles of about 6,500 copyrighted songs, but the screening system could block up to 1 million songs.
Napster attorney David Boies offered the screening system as a quick fix to keep Napster open as it faces a copyright infringement suit.
After the hearing, Hilary Rosen, the RIAA’s chief executive, told reporters that Napster’s filtering system “has the potential to be effective, but we’ll see.”
Whether Judge Patel buys Napster’s proposal isn’t clear yet, but Internet strategists say a screening system in its software won’t keep savvy users from sharing pirated songs. Filters are easy to work around with different names, observers note.
“There is no way that Napster can know what the contents of a file are; all they can screen is the text of the file name,” says Greg Meyers, adjunct professor at The Wharton School, specializing in e-commerce. “Anybody could encrypt a different name, or someone could easily put an ampersand or other symbol [in the file name] or spell the artist’s name wrong.”
Meanwhile, music fans were furiously downloading songs Friday in anticipation of Napster’s shutdown. More than 8,500 people were sharing more than 1.7 million files through just one of Napster’s more than 50 servers.
Napster’s service has attracted about 60 million users, who swap songs for free by trading MP3 files, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small digital files.
The landmark court battle is seen as a defining case for copyright law in cyberspace, affecting the way books, movies and all entertainment will be distributed online.
A FAIR RESOLUTION?
The dispute returned to U.S. District Court in San Francisco Friday, where Patel told lawyers for Napster and the recording industry that she was seeking a fair and workable way of enforcing copyright protections.
“The reason for this hearing today is to discuss not what if, but what an injunction should look like,” Patel said.
Napster’s lawyers said the company was racing to develop new software to filter out copyrighted material and hoped soon to reach agreement with the recording industry on how to identify such material.
“We have come considerably closer together on the issue of an injunction,” attorney Boies said.
Lawyers for the recording industry, meanwhile, urged Patel not to delay the injunction in hopes that these technical issues might soon be resolved.
Want to learn MORE?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/537641.asp
------------------
"I'd like an order of fries, a quarter pounder with cheese, I love the light in your eyes, would you go out with me please? I am in love with a McDonald's Girl, she has a smile of innocence so tender and warm, she is an angel in a polyester uniform."