To the Hill: Napster Plans D.C. Rally

March 29, 2001 — -- Napster is asking fans to show their numbers in Washington next week as senators mull issues related to the company's ongoing court battle with the recording industry.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday to brief its members on new technologies and how they affect existing copyright law.

"Attending the hearing and contacting your Senators and members of Congress conveys that you care about the future of file sharing and digital music," reads a statement on Napster's Web site.

In lawsuits filed since Dec. 1999, prominent members of the recording industry said Napster, an Internet site that allows music fans to swap digitized files of recordings, is infringing upon their copyrights.

The ongoing court battle threatens the existence of Napster. The company, which already has suffered setbacks in court, evidently intends to rally support before Congress.

"If the Napster community shows up in force for this hearing, it will help educate Congress on why it is important not to let the recording industry shut down music file sharing," reads another page on Napster's Web site. "You can give voice to millions of other Napster supporters by attending this hearing."

Napster founder Shawn Fanning plans to speak to assembled fans about Internet file sharing at a forum in Washington on Monday evening, and Napster is organizing a post-hearing concert for up to 1,000 fans on Tuesday night.

Napster did not respond to requests for further details on the Washington rally.

Meanwhile, Napster and members of the recording industry continue a court battle that could determine whether Napster can survive.

On March 5, a judge issued an injunction ordering Napster to block access to songs and artists identified by the industry.

Napster responded with software to block the identified songs from being traded on its site, but critics said the blocking software could be bypassed by changing the spellings of artists names and song titles.