Then Napster Loses. Judge shuts them down for providing an avenue for illegal publishing. Now for the real trick. . . going after Gnutella and other type CD sharing services that do not have a centralized location. It may take numerous stings of those providing their songs on the net and those actually doing the downloads to get the message across to this group. Meanwhile, here's the news:
Thursday July 27 1:18 AM ET
Judge Orders Injunction Vs. Napster
By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge shut down Napster Inc.'s
Internet clearinghouse on Wednesday, saying the company that revolutionized
music distribution was encouraging ``wholesale infringing'' against recording
industry copyrights and would likely lose at trial.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel noted that 70 million people are
expected to be using Napster by year's end unless the service is halted.
``It is pretty much acknowledged by Napster that this is infringement,'' Patel
said.
The injunction will go into effect at midnight Friday, after the nation's largest
record producers post a $5 million bond against any financial losses Napster
suffers from being shut down pending trial.
Napster's attorney, David Boies, said the San Mateo, Calif.-based company
will appeal.
``I think that a settlement, frankly, is unlikely,'' Boies said.
The Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster in December,
accusing it of encouraging an unrestrained, illegal, online bazaar. The heavy
metal band Metallica also sued, saying more than 300,000 Napster users had
traded its songs online. Napster responded by blocking access for more than
30,000 people, but new users continued trading the band's music.
``We're elated,'' Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told The Associated Press.
``Sharing is such a warm, cuddly, friendly word ... this is not sharing, it's
duplicating.''
RIAA attorney Russell Frackman told the court that as the hearing was going
on 1,400 songs were being downloaded each minute via Napster's software.
``Radio, TV, cable TV - all these businesses get clearances before they use
copyrighted material,'' added Carey Ramos, an attorney for the record labels.
``Napster doesn't want to have to do that. It's too much effort. It requires
them to work before they become Internet billionaires,'' Ramos said.
Boies argued that if Napster was ordered to eliminate copyrighted music
traded through its service, it would inevitably end up removing legally traded
songs as well.
The judge downplayed such hardships and told Boies that the same ``bright
minds'' that created Napster's technology would need to devise a solution to
comply with copyright law.
Napster also argued that personal copying of music is protected by federal
law, and that by encouraging the sampling of new music and promotion of
new artists.
It said its service should be considered a non-infringing use as defined by the
precedent-setting Sony Betamax case. In that case, the movie industry tried
to quell the development of VCRs, claiming they would be used primarily to
make illegal copies of copyrighted movies. The movie industry lost the battle,
but Patel said Napster's program did not meet the same criteria as VCRs.
Napster provided a clear target for the lawsuit because users trade song files
through more than 100 central computer servers at Napster.
The injunction will likely have no effect on Gnutella and other decentralized
technologies spawned by Napster. With Gnutella, there is no center; song
files are traded directly between a constantly changing collection of computer
users.
The music industry has made Napster the focus of a long-running dispute
between copyright owners and Internet enthusiasts who believe information
of all sorts should be traded freely.
``All of this litigation is really setting the groundwork for what is going to the
future of the Internet,'' said Larry Iser, an intellectual property attorney.
The RIAA estimates that song-swapping via Napster by an estimated 20
million people worldwide has cost the music industry more than $300 million
in lost sales.
But some research suggests that Internet song-swapping may not be so bad
for the music industry after all.
A recent study of more than 2,200 online music fans by Jupiter
Communications suggests that users music-sharing programs are 45 percent
more likely to increase their music purchasing than fans who aren't trading
digital bootlegs online.
Napster, the dorm-room project of renegade programmer Shawn Fanning,
has grown into an Internet phenomenon with a million new users a month.
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and other investors poured in millions,
installed a high-powered chief executive and seasoned music industry
executives, and relegated Fanning to a smaller role in the company.
Fanning traded his trademark baseball cap for a conservative dark blue suit
Wednesday and looked on nervously from the front row in the courtroom,
but didn't speak.
He later appeared in a short Webcast on the Napster site, telling Napster
users: ``We will keep fighting for Napster and for your right to share music
over the Internet.''
Dozens of music fans expressed their anger over the ruling in Napster's online
chat rooms.
Elisabeth Prot, a sales executive from San Francisco who uses Napster, said
she would look for alternative programs to trade music online and add to her
collection of more than 120 downloaded music files.
``I'm disappointed,'' she said, ``but I think that there will soon be another way
to download free music on the Internet.''
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On the Net:
napster.com
riaa.com
This quote sums it up. . .``I'm disappointed,'' she said, ``but I think that there will soon be another way
to download free music on the Internet.'' . . . spoken like a true hack! Those that hack the internet in such ways are breaking the law and should be treated as such. Copyrights are bound by Federal Law, the same as Trademarks and Patents. Letting any one of these become fair game to anyone that wants them, compromises the integrity of the intellectual property laws of the U.S., which in turn jeopardizes our future.
I say,
"Protect the creators, inventors, composers, artists and designers of a country and you make an investment into your countries future."
Rande Is |
