Judge Gives Napster 3 Days To Stop Swapping

A federal judge has given the Internet music-swapping service just three days to block any songs protected by copyright.

It's the biggest victory yet for the recording industry in its bid to control digital music.

It's not clear what will happen if Napster is unable to comply with the 72-hour rule.

The clock starts ticking the moment record labels present Napster with lists of songs they want banned from the site, which has drawn more than 50 million people into a free-music frenzy.

Major record companies had sued Napster for copyright infringement.

An industry analyst says the ruling doesn't sink Napster, but gives the recording industry a great deal of power over it. The companies can decide how usable Napster will be for customers, said Eric Sheirer, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Record Companies Must Serve Notice

In the ruling filed Tuesday, Judge Marilyn Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was following instructions from the appeals court. That was to order Napster to stop swapping copywritten songs, but put the burden on the record companies to find the songs in Napster's pipeline and give notice to the service.

Originally Patel ordered that the burden of detecting copywritten songs was on Napster; the appeals court struck down that portion of her earlier injunction.

The new rulings says that the recording industry will have to notify Napster of the title of the song, the name of the artist and the name of the computer file containing the copyrighted material.

Patel wrote in Tuesday's ruling: "Once Napster receives 'reasonable knowledge' ... of specific infringing files containing copyrighted sound recordings, Napster shall, within three business days, prevent such files from being included in the Napster index (thereby preventing access to the files ... through the Napster system)."

Since Napster's system is an online network connecting individuals' computer hard drives, blocking the trading of specified songs would entail searching for the songs in the users' computers, then disallowing them from being copied via the network.

"Within three business days of receipt of reasonable notice of infringing files, Napster shall affirmatively search the names of all files being made available by all users at the time those users log on," Patel wrote, "... and prevent the downloading, uploading, transmitting or distributing of the noticed copyrighted musical compositions or sound recordings."

To read the full ruling, click here. (Requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader software).

Record Execs, Metallica Glowing

Hillary Rosen, the head of the Record Industry Association of America, reacted to the ruling by saying that she looks forward to "the end of Napster's infringing activity."

There was no immediate comment from Napster officials. Rosen said that record labels plan to follow up fully on the court's order.

Patel said the recording industry will have to notify Napster of the title of the song, the name of the artist and the name of the computer file containing the copyrighted material.

Napster then would have three business days to implement a system of blocking access to that file. Napster began a screening system this weekend in an effort to weed out such copyrighted music.

A lawyer for the heavy metal band Metallica also hailed the ruling.

"If Napster complies," says attorney Howard King, "it will be to our satisfaction." He represents Metallica and the rapper Dr. Dre.

The Recording Industry Association and Napster are scheduled to attend a mediation session Friday.