It is still possible for the RIAA to appeal this latest decision
to the full 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals or the US Supreme
Court. The full hearing is expected to take place in September,
although a formal date has not yet been fixed.
Hilary Rosen, President of the RIAA said in a statement after
the decision of the appeals court: “We remain confident that the
Court will ultimately affirm once it has had an opportunity to
review the facts and the law... It is frustrating, of course, that
the tens of millions of daily infringements occurring on Napster
will be able to continue, at least temporarily.”
When the original ruling was made on Wednesday and it appeared
that Napster’s service would be shut down, the mass of publicity
meant that millions of existing and new Napster users tried to
download as much material as possible, thereby worsening the
problem for the RIAA’s members who comprise the biggest record
labels in the world.
Observers have warned that in pushing for the closure of
Napster, the RIAA could be shooting itself in the foot. Alternative
services FreeNet and Gnutella enjoyed a massive surge in activity
since Wednesday’s ruling. These systems, which allow users to swap
any type of file (not just MP3 files), do not have centralised
servers and so cannot be shut down, either by their original
authors or by the courts. Accordingly, many believe that the RIAA
might do better from working with and trying to regulate Napster,
which already has a database of over 20 million users.
The Napster.com web site is urging users to e-mail the heads of
the major record companies to ask them not to "kill" Napster. It is
also running a “buy-cott” by asking users to “support the artists
who support Napster by going out and buying their CDs. Be sure to
let the record store know you came from Napster.” It lists the
supporting artists, including Radiohead, Ben Folds Five and
Marianne Faithfull.
