Word: napstered
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...fooled. This legal face-off between the music industry and Napster may turn out to be one of the great trials of the digital age. Earlier this year the Microsoft antitrust case spelled out the rules for how high-tech companies can and can't compete with one another. The Napster case may make an equally bold statement about what intellectual property rights will exist in the new economy. If the ruling goes the industry's way, as many expect, it could bring an end to the brief era in which all sorts of music were readily available for free...
...Napster is, of course, the wildly popular file-sharing service whose 20 million users have downloaded some half a billion songs--most of them copyrighted, all of them free. To the music-industry plaintiffs in this week's suit--including Warner Records, which, like this magazine, is a unit of Time Warner--services like Napster are simply high-tech piracy. The industry is worried that in the future, only a few CDs will be sold; everyone else will download from the Net. In this suit, the Recording Industry Association of America and 18 record labels are asking Judge Marilyn Hall...
...Napster, which was developed by 19-year-old Shawn Fanning in 1999, lost a key early ruling in the case. It had tried to argue that it was a "mere conduit" for the songs exchanged over it. Just as a phone company is not liable for a threatening phone call made on its lines, Napster argued that it shouldn't be responsible for piracy its users engaged in. But Judge Patel rejected that claim. Napster responded with a bold move of its own. It hired star litigator David Boies--fresh from his victory in the Microsoft antitrust case--to represent...
...then they'll just go elsewhere. Gnutella, Freenet, Scour Exchange, iMesh and CuteMX are all ready to catch Napster's disappointed fans. One service, Audiofind, responded to news of the imminent shutdown by posting the message "BYE BYE NAPSTER!!" on its web site...
...Fair enough. But what about innocent until proven guilty? Although Napster has appealed to a three-judge panel to have Patel's order stayed, traffic to Napster.com hit record highs in the wake of Patel's decision, as groove-moochers everywhere scramble to grab whatever they can drag and drop before the order takes effect at 3 p.m. Saturday...