Monday, December 19, 2005

"Napster " told to stop its service


A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that Napster Inc., an online music trading plaform, must stop trading copyrighted material and may be held liable for what it called "vicarious copyright infringement."
According to the ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Fransisco, Napster must prevent users from gaining access to copyrighted content. Napster responded by stating such a ruling could force it to shut down the service.It has promised to appeal the decision.

Hilary Rosen, president and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.), told reporters, "This is a clear victory."

Metallica, the band that filed initial lawsuits with the R.I.A.A against Napster, said it was satisfied with the result of the hearing.

"The Ninth Circuit Court has confirmed that musicians, songwriters, filmmakers, authors, visual artists and other members of the creative community are entitled to the same copyright protections online that they traditionally been afforded offline," said the spokesman for the band.

Meanwhile, Napster is vowing to "pursue every legal avenue" to keep its service open.

"We are disappointed in today's ruling,"Napster CEO Hank Berry said in a press statement. "Under this decision, Napster could be shut down - even before a trial on the merits. The court today ruled on the basis of what it recognized was an incomplete record before it. We look forward to getting more facts into the record. While we respect the court's decision, we believe, contrary to the court's ruling today, that Napster users are not copyright infringers."

In reaction to the ruling, UW sophomore Jeremy Kuhlmann said he was disappointed.

"Napster has expanded my musical horizons immensely. When someone suggests a band to me, Napster is the first place I turn to find that band."

According to Berry, Napster intends to continue working on solutions with the other major record companies, referring to recent alliances with Bertelsmann A.G. and independent labels like TVT and Edel.

"We have been saying all along that we seek an industry-supported solution that makes payments to artists, songwriters and other rights-holders while preserving the Napster file-sharing community experience," Berry said.

Shawn Fanning, the creator of the Napster software, redelivered Berry's message and was confident that Napster had been moving in the right direction toward a legitimate music distribution site.

"We've been developing a Napster service that offers additional benefits to members of the community and, importantly, makes payments to artists," Fanning said. "I'm focused on building this better service and I still hope to have it in place this year. The new technologies we are developing are amazing; I hope that, by further court review or by agreement with the record companies, we can find a way to share them with the community.

"We'll all find a way to keep this community growing." Copyright©2000 The Daily University of Washington

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