US court switches off free music on web
REUTERS

LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 13: A federal appeals court on Monday ordered the web-based song-swap service, Napster, to stop its millions of users from trading copyrighted material.

The decision came after the October 2, 2000 hearing in which the recording industry asked the court to lift its stay on a July injunction against Napster by US district court judge Marilyn Hall Patel.

The lower court judge has now been instructed to modify her earlier ruling by requiring music companies to identify which of their copyrights were being infringed. Napster, to avoid liability, must then patrol its system for infringing material and block access to those songs in its search index.

Describing the decision as a major victory, recording industry officials and legal experts said this could be the end of Napster as a free song-swapping service. ``The decision writes Napster's epitaph. Its days as an instrument of electronic shoplifting are over,'' said Chuck Cooper, a lawyer for the Recording Industry Association of America in Washington.

There was gloom at Napster. ``Napster is not shut down, but under this decision it could be. We will seek an appellate review,'' the company said in a statement. Napster lawyer David Boies said it could take days or weeks for the district court to issue a modified injunction. Boies, famed for his work with the Justice Department in the Microsoft anti-trust case, vowed to pursue every avenue in the courts and Congress to keep Napster operating.

The ruling set off a feeding frenzy on the service as millions of users tried to download as many songs as possible before the looming shutdown.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.