I’m sure that a few of you reading this have used Napster at some stage, if you’ve had your head in a bucket or something in the past few days :o) Let us bring you back up to scratch, this is from Dotmusic:
A US federal appeal court last night ruled against the music-swapping service Napster.
The court came out on the side of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and ruled that the file-sharing internet giant must stop trading in copyrighted material.
Before the outcome of proceedings Napster officials were said to be confident of their legal postion in this long running battle with the US labels.
The record companies fought Napster on the grounds that the service denied artists huge slices of their profits.
UK Culture Secretary Chris Smith welcomed the decision and said: “I am pleased that today’s decision by the US courts protects the intellectual property of the artists who write and perform the music.
“I hope there will now be moves to find legal routes to give access to music on the internet without disadvantaging composers or performers.”
A spokesman for Napster said this morning that the battle was far from over: “We are not shut down, but under this decision we could be.
“We are very disappointed in this ruling by the three-judge panel and will seek appellate review.
“While we respect the Court’s decision, we believe, contrary to the Court’s ruling, that Napster users are not copyright infringers.
“We will pursue every avenue in the courts and the Congress to keep Napster operating.”