A federal judge yesterday described Napster’s efforts to filter
copyrighted music from its system “disgraceful” and told the
company that if it cannot find a more effective way of blocking the
songs, “maybe the system needs to be closed down.”
The hearing before US District Judge Marilyn Patel aimed to
determine whether Napster was complying with an injunction of 5th
March that ordered the company to put in place filters to block the
swapping of songs on its service that featured in lists supplied by
record companies. While Napster claims to have blocked over 1.7
million files, users have succeeded in renaming songs and
circumventing the filters.
Judge Patel told Napster, “You created this monster, you figure
it out.” Before making any decision, she has appointed an
independent technical expert, Dr. A.J. Nichols, who will advise
Judge Patel on what Napster is technically capable of doing. She is
also considering a claim by over 26,000 publishers wanting class
action status for a claim against Napster for copyright
infringement.
