Groups Ask Judge to Block Napster
The Recording Industry Assn. of America filed evidence late Monday supporting its motion against Napster Inc., and asked the U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco to shut down the popular online song-swapping service.
The trade group, along with the National Music Publishers Assn., also submitted an industry-financed study that claims record sales have plummeted at music stores near college campuses with high-speed Internet connections.
In December, the RIAA, which represents the five major record labels, alleged that Napster’s service helped computer users find and download bootlegged songs without paying the copyright owners.
Denying that Napster hurts the industry, Hank Barry, interim chief executive of Napster, said in a statement: “Every time an innovation has made it easier for people to enjoy music more conveniently and less expensively, the music industry has complained and tried to slow the adoption of the technology. And every time, the music industry has nonetheless benefited.”
With the Napster case, RIAA officials are hoping for an encore to its recent legal victory against MP3.com, another online music company accused of violating copyrights. MP3.com recently settled part of those complaints, and reportedly agreed to pay an estimated $100 million to the five major labels in damages and licensing fees.
In an unusual show of support, MP3.com Chief Executive Michael Robertson submitted a declaration Monday backing RIAA’s motion. He said that Napster’s file-sharing services hurt young and emerging artists. In their motion for a preliminary injunction, the music industry groups argued that Napster, a closely held song-swapping software company, was responsible for widespread copyright infringement and industry harm.
They cited a study by the Field Research Corp. of 2,555 college students who are Internet users, which showed a correlation between Napster use and decreased CD sales.
“[Nearly half] of Napster users . . . described the nature of its impact on their music purchases in a way which either explicitly indicated or suggested that Napster displaces CD sales,” the Field study said.
Essentially, every Napster user sampled was engaged in some copyright infringement while using the service, according to the study.
“Napster teaches a generation of music consumers that artists do not deserve to be paid for their work, and their creative efforts are free for the taking,” the groups said in their filing.
Napster’s Barry defended the company: “The RIAA ignores the 8% overall increase in sales in [the first quarter of] 2000, when Napster was a factor. . . . There is nothing to suggest that Napster does anything but drive up sales.
“In fact, an independent Pew Foundation researcher said recently that people used Napster and [file-sharing software] Gnutella to sample music and to find new music. Napster is interesting people in music and driving them to buy music.”
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Times wire services were used in compiling this report.