Napster to Filter Copyright Material

The Napster offer for this voluntary restriction on millions of its users precedes an anticipated court order that might demand even stronger remedies.

Napster attorney David Boies revealed the offer as U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel convened an appeals court ruling requiring her to modify her earlier injunction forbidding free downloading of copyright material by the Web site music distributor.

Boies said Napster employees had been working around the clock for the last two-and-a-half weeks to develop the filters that will prevent copyright violations.

The new system will allow Napster's computers to screen individual file names and automatically block free distribution of forbidden material.

"Napster officials realize that they have to police the system" after an appeals court ruling last month reaffirmed that the company was violating copyrights. This will include 5,600 songs submitted to Napster by the major record labels, along with songs submitted by others such as heavy metal band Metallica, rap musician Dr Dre and music producers.

"We are inserting a step between the uploading and the viewing of the index ... that will block out specific file names," said Boies.

Patel, ordered by an appeals court to revise an injunction on halting copyright violations, said Friday's hearing was an effort to determine "what an injunction should look like."

Earlier, attorneys for Napster and record labels presented arguments on how to protect copyright material as the hearing began. A ruling is not immediately expected.

Earlier reports had suggested that Napster's possible shutdown had not dampened the spirit of its fans, who were taking full advantage of their companies' faster Web connections to download the popular song-swapping service site.

The downloading had increased by 28 percent to 1.6 million unique visitors in the past week ending Feb. 25 compared to six weeks ago, according to leading Internet audience measurement service Nielsen NetRatings.

Gathered outside the courthouse, Napster fans said the Internet music-swapping service was facing more than a legal battle, it was now also facing a viral attack.

Anti-virus experts have discovered a PC-infecting worm traveling through Gnutella, a system which allows Internet users to share songs and full-length movies and is also used by Napster fans.

Meanwhile, Judge Patel concluded the hearing and said she would now draft an injunction that could shut down the popular online music swap service for copyright infringement.

"I will issue some kind of preliminary injunction," Patel said after more than two hours of testimony from lawyers representing Napster and the Recording Industry Association of America. She did not say when she would issue the new injunction.

A federal appeals court last month asked Patel to amend an earlier order and ask the music companies to specify which of their rights were violated.

At Friday's hearing, lawyers for Napster sought to persuade Patel to delay the injunction, saying the service was working on new technology that would effectively allow it to block users from accessing copyrighted material.

However, RIAA urged Patel not to delay her injunction as it would open the door to more online music piracy.