Today may be the last day to download music for free from embattled song-swap service Napster, as a US court prepares to rule on whether the site has violated copyright law by allowing users to download music without providing payment to artists and record companies.
This weekend tens of thousands of Napster's 50m users flooded the company's servers for last minute downloads in advance of the ruling, expected at 6pm GMT today.
The five largest record labels - Sony, Warner, BMG, EMI and Universal - sued as soon as Redwood City-based Napster took off, saying it could rob them of billions of dollars in profits.
The issue before the US 9th Circuit court of appeals today is whether to uphold a US District court judge's injunction ordering Napster to shut down pending a trial on the music industry lawsuit. The injunction was put on hold pending the 9th Circuit review.
But the three-judge panel also could rule more broadly, describing how copyright law should apply to emerging technologies that make it ever more difficult to control and profit from the distribution of music, software, books, movies and other creative content.
In May 1999, Napster founder Shawn Fanning released software that made it easy for personal computer users to locate and trade songs they had stored as computer files in the MP3 format, which crunches digital recordings down to manageable lengths without sacrificing quality.
The concept of "peer-to-peer", song trading quickly proved too popular to contain. As Napster users grew by the millions, other file-sharing programs also popped up, such as Gnutella and Freenet. Record labels themselves are looking to use the same technology, only with paying subscribers and secure digital formats that prevent copying.
Major record labels hope today's ruling will force millions of computer users to pay for music the online music swapping service has allowed them to get for free.
If Napster wins however, the ruling could give new life to other business ventures that have been waiting for guidance on whether a "personal use" exception to copyright law allows or prohibits trading copyrighted material over the Internet.
Since the appeal court judges began deliberating in October, Napster has made agreements with former business foes like Bertelsmann AG, the parent company of the BMG music unit. The German media giant has promised much-needed capital if Napster switches to a subscription-based service that pays artists' royalties. The other four major labels are holding out for Napster's demise.
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Useful links
Napster
Recording industry association of America
