Federal judge's injunction ordering company to remove copyrighted material
takes effect midnight Friday.

Several Napster users said on Thursday they were in a mad rush to score free
music before a federal injunction effectively shuts down the controversial
music-trading service Friday night (July 28).

"My friends and I made a list of all the stuff we want to get," Jen Leeson,
a 19-year-old Napster user, wrote in an e-mail. "We're going to stay up all
night [Thursday], trying to get it all before they flick the switch on us."

On Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco granted the Recording
Industry Association of America's request for a preliminary injunction
against Napster, ordering the company to remove all copyrighted material
from its service by midnight Friday. The RIAA, a trade group that represents
the five major record labels, is suing Napster for copyright infringement,
as are veteran metal band Metallica and legendary gangsta rapper Dr. Dre.



RIAA attorney Russell Frackman requested in court that the injunction take
effect immediately, arguing that Napster users would hurry to their
computers to download all they could before the service shuts down.


A Napster spokesperson confirmed Thursday that use of the service had
increased, but she said she had no official figures.


One posting, titled "Napster is Dead ... Long Live Napster!" in the
alt.music.stereophonics newsgroup, read: "If you've been putting off
downloading anything, DO IT NOW. Meanwhile, let us mourn the loss of a great
service and see what you can do to help."

Napster filed an appeal Thursday afternoon to delay the injunction. If the
request is denied, the company says it will comply with the court's order
and shut down its service, saying that separating copyrighted material from
the rest of the content would be impossible.


Meanwhile, many Napster users lashed out at the court's ruling.


"This decision is total BS," one user, 30-year-old Doug Canipe, wrote in
rec.music.artists.kiss. "It's like busting some guy for a roach in his
ashtray and thinking you've solved America's drug problem. The only people
afraid of Napster are the bands/labels who fear that people will listen to
their stuff, realize it sucks and not waste their money on the CD."

Phil Tornoth, a 21-year-old Napster user from San Diego, said he was
disappointed by the ruling, because he felt Napster "has the potential to
really purify and strengthen the music community."


"Right now the path between some [kid] in the Midwest and Metallica is a
long and expensive one," Tornoth wrote in an e-mail. "The kid has to find
out about bands somehow, yes? Good thing there's millions of dollars making
sure that when the kid goes out looking for [heavy-metal music] that he
encounters Metallica, as opposed to some equally meriting band without a
multinational corporation printing their posters. And Napster would fuck all
of that up."

Thurs., July 27, 2000 11:43 PM EDT

Casey

http://www.beer.com
http://www.drums.com
http://www.sex.com

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