Napster Blocks Copyrighted Songs

Over the weekend, the popular music-sharing Internet site Napster started blocking its users from

downloading copyrighted materials.

Napster announced its plan to limit user access on Friday in federal court, where attorneys for both Napster and the recording industry were presenting oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Marilyn H. Patel. Patel is in the process of redrafting the injunction that will shut down Napster indefinitely, pending the outcome of its trial against the recording industry.

Napster has already restricted access to over one million songs, Napster attorney David Boies told Netscape.com.

Boies said Friday that Napster needed the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to send it a list of those copyrighted albums and songs that should be removed from the Napster index. In response, the recording industry has submitted a list of more than 6,500 songs.

This latest move marks a series of concessions by Napster since the severe blow it was dealt several weeks ago, when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voiced the opinion that Napster users infringe on copyrights and that "Napster materially contributes to the infringing activity."

Since then, Napster has made several attempts to settle claims of copyright infringement out of court, including an announcement that it will move to a completely fee-based pricing plan by summer. The service has also offered to pay $1 billion over the next five years to major record labels, songwriters and independent artists--an offer that was rebuffed.

Despite the recent filtering of copyrighted songs, the record industry is still far from ready to sing Napster's praises.

"It's important for me to give some credit to Napster today," said Hilary Rosen, CEO of RIAA, during a Friday press conference. "I think they came into court trying to be productive. I still think that they've got a way to go."

Rosen pointed out that Napster's agreement to ban access to certain files seems to be in contradiction with previous claims that it was impossible for the service to sort out specific songs.

Boies countered by saying that Napster still cannot examine specific files to see if they are instances of copyright infringement--it can only block specific file names.

Napster officials claim the file-sharing service is doing its best to obey the law while staying alive.

In a statement issued after Friday's hearing, Napster CEO Hank Barry said, "We proposed a workable injunction that follows the 9th Circuit ruling and keeps the Napster community together while we are working to settle this case and transition to our new membership-based service."