from; http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Digital Society Napster Condemned to Die (So why do I hear a death rattle in the music industry?) SAN FRANCISCO -- Napster, the controversial file-sharing service that has been the scourge of the music industry since it was launched late last year, has been reduced to a chat room. In a scathing decision Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel granted the recording industry a temporary injunction to pull the file-trading portion of its service, effective Friday at 12 a.m. PDT. In a lengthy statement, the judge said the recording industry had shown it would likely win a trial, while the defendants had failed to prove the software had substantial, non-infringing uses. She even cited Napster executives for downloading copyrighted music onto their hard drives. "The significant use of this service is obviously trading copyrighted material without obtaining copyright holders' permission," Patel said. The RIAA originally filed the lawsuit against Napster in December, on the grounds that the Napster application had created a safe haven for Internet music piracy. Napster attorney David Boies said he would appeal Patel's ruling. Making Napster unavailable to its 20 million users brings the recording industry one step closer to closing down the controversial company, which created the application. During his testimony, RIAA attorney Russ Frackman asked the court to enjoin the Napster service, claiming that "before the trial was finished, the service would have 75 million users," a user base that would irreparably harm the industry and drive down CD sales. Frackman said that while Napster has introduced evidence that CD sales may currently be up, that doesn't address the rights that copyright holders have. "I think that their evidence is completely irrelevant to the case," he said. "You can't take copyrighted materials and argue that some of the people, some of the time, can take those materials and use them for the betterment of copyright holders." Napster asked the court in May to throw out the lawsuit, claiming that it qualified for the 'safe harbor' provision afforded to Internet service providers in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Patel rejected Napster's request for a summary judgment, setting up Wednesday's showdown in court. Despite recent maneuvers to create a more "label-friendly" business model, Patel hammered away at Boies over the piracy issue. She repeatedly asked why the company would face financial ruin in the event of a shutdown if the application has non-infringing uses. Boies said there is "no practical way to separate the substantial from the infringing uses." Patel dismissed that and other arguments. "The fact that users get for free what they would normally pay for indicates that these users are reaping the economic benefit of this service," Patel said. "It appears to be that much of these non-infringing uses have come later in the game and after the company was already infringing." In a statement, RIAA Senior Executive Vice President Cary Sherman said the decision "will pave the way for the future of online music." "This once again establishes that the rules of the road are the same online as they are offline, and sends a strong message to others that they cannot build a business based on others' copyrighted works without permission," Sherman said. "Now that Napster's management understands that they need the authorization of copyright owners to engage in their business, we hope that they will work with the record companies to devise innovative ways to use their technology for legitimate purposes," Sherman said. On Monday, the company announced a research and development deal with software company Liquid Audio to provide technology to sell music securely online. Both companies are funded by the same venture capital fund, Hummer Winblad. Patel's ruling could also have implications for Scour.com, the multimedia version of Napster, which was sued last week by the Motion Picture Association of America and the RIAA. Wired News, July 27, 2000 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
