Napster Shut Down

S A N   F R A N C I S C O, July 26 -- A federal judge shut down Napster Inc.’sInternet clearinghouse today, saying the company thatrevolutionized music distribution was encouraging “wholesaleinfringing” against recording industry copyrights and would likelylose at trial.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel noted that 70 millionpeople are expected to be using Napster by year’s end unless theservice is halted.

“It is pretty much acknowledged by Napster that this isinfringement,” Patel said, adding that “any of the potential,non-infringing uses of Napster are minimal.”

The injunction will go into effect at midnight Friday, after thenation’s largest record producers post a $5 million bond againstany financial losses Napster suffers from being shut down pendingtrial.

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 Copyright Debate

The Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster inDecember, accusing it of encouraging an unrestrained, illegal,online bazaar.

RIAA attorney Russell Frackman told the court that as thehearing was going on 1,400 songs were being downloaded each minutevia Napster’s software.

“Napster is attempting to build a user base to control digitaldistribution,” Frackman said. “It is the most egregious case ofmassive copyright infringement that has ever existed.”

Napster argued that personal copying of music is protected byfederal law, and that by encouraging the sampling of new music andpromotion of new artists.

It said its service should be considered a non-infringing use asdefined by the precedent-setting Sony Betamax case. In that case,the movie industry tried to quell the development of VCRs, claimingthey would be used primarily to make illegal copies of copyrightedmovies. The movie industry lost the battle, but Patel saidNapster’s program did not meet the same criteria as VCRs.