SAN FRANCISCO – On Monday a federal appeals court struck a serious blow against Napster, saying the music-swapping service could be held liable if its users trade illegally copied songs. The panel’s ruling that Napster’s users are violating copyright laws sent an ominous message to fans of digital music file sharing.
A three-member panel of judges stopped short of immediately halting the music swapping, as a lower court had done in July. A court ruling allows Napster users to continue swapping music for now but opens the door to millions of dollars in damages that could cripple the service.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that Napster must prevent its users from swapping files of songs that have been identified as copyrighted material.
Napster is permitted to appeal the decision, and the company has requested a hearing before all of the 9th Circuit’s judges. If that request is denied, Napster’s only remaining appeal is to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hilary Rosen, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), called the ruling “a clear victory. The court of appeals found that the injunction is not only warranted, but required. And it ruled in our favor on every legal issue presented.”
Whether Napster could technically keep up with record-industry requests is unclear. When the injunction was initially ordered, the company said it could not comply and would be effectively forced out of business.
Napster has argued it is not to blame for its subscribers’ use of copyrighted material, citing the Sony Betamax decision of 1984, in which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hold VCR manufacturers and videotape retailers liable for people’s copying of movies.
Napster founder Shawn Fanning said he was disappointed with the ruling but pointed out that the music service is developing a payment system for music artists that should be in place later this year. “We respect the court’s decision, but we believe that Napster users are not copyright infringers,” Napster chief executive Hank Barry said at a news conference following the court’s ruling.
The Consumer Electronics Association also criticized the ruling. “We believe that the Court of Appeals has ignored basic principles of copyright infringement and fair use established in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sony Betamax decision,” CEA’s chief executive, Gary Shapiro, wrote in a statement. “This ruling, unless overturned upon appeal, could stymie technological development and sets a dangerous precedent for the preservation of fair-use rights enjoyed by consumers for more than 20 years.”
Millions of users have flooded the company’s computer servers in the past three days to download free music, fearing the service will be shut down at any moment. Napster has an estimated 50 million users.
Webnoize, which monitors the digital entertainment economy, estimated that 250 million songs were downloaded using Napster over the weekend. Webnoize said that, on average, 1.5 million users were logged on to the system at any one time.
The digital music technology Napster made popular is here to stay, no matter the outcome of the court case.
Napster is by far the most popular online song-swapping service — but it is not the only one. As the threat of a court-ordered shut down looms over Napster users, many have turned to alternative programs. Some of the other file-sharing technologies are even harder for the record and movie industries to control because they lack central servers – thus making lawsuits to shut them down difficult to pursue and nearly impossible to enforce. If the Napster can’t survive in its current form, would you be willing to pay to use Napster?
Visit some other music swapping services:
