Panel to Review Stay of Ruling Against Napster

Attorneys for Napster Inc. were due back in court today to justify the reprieve the company won in July that kept its wildly popular Internet music-sharing service running.

A federal judge had issued an injunction against Napster, saying it encouraged “wholesale infringing” against music industry copyrights.

But only hours before Napster’s computer servers were to power down, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the injunction, keeping the company’s MusicShare service alive--at least for now.

Lawyers for Redwood City, Calif.-based Napster, which claims to have 22 million users, now have to persuade three San Francisco-based judges to keep the stay in place, pending a trial of the Recording Industry Assn. of America’s lawsuit against Napster. Both sides say they are fighting for their survival.

The three-judge panel has already expressed concerns about the injunction and will try to determine whether it was overly broad, attorneys said. A decision is not expected for at least a month.