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Facing extinction, the embattled file-sharing company will block access to a million copyrighted songs.
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2001
SAN FRANCISCO -- Napster users, move quickly: The controversial free music Web site plans to start blocking access to more than a million music files beginning this weekend.
The partial shutdown comes as Napster Inc. continues a furious but possibly futile effort to make deals with the major record labels trying to put it out of business.
Napster attorney David Boies said the new technology effectively would block searches for material identified by copyright holders by programming the material into the screening system by song name and artist name.
Music industry attorney Russell Frackman told U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel that a far greater number of songs should be screened out, including recordings not yet released to the public. Napster should start with the Billboard Top 100 singles and Top 200 albums and by policing its system to keep those lists current, he said.
Napster's move amounts to a concession that its days as an online clearinghouse for the free trade in copyrighted tunes are over.
To avoid being shut down, Napster last week offered to settle the lawsuit for $1-billion in exchange for a 40 percent cut of online music sales. The offer was soundly rejected by the recording industry, which is anticipating victory in the landmark case.
At the very least, Napster will soon get access to some copyrighted songs from Bertelsmann AG, the German media conglomerate that owns labels such as Arista and RCA. In October, Bertelsmann became the first and only big record label to partner with Napster. Together, the two companies are developing a subscription-based music service that will charge a monthly fee for a limited amount of music trading.
Patel did not say when she would rule on a higher court's instruction that she narrow the scope of her July injunction ordering Napster to stop facilitating the swapping of pirated music.
- Information from Cox News Service and Associated Press was used in this report.