Appelate court upholds Napster ruling

By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Reporter

Though Napster’s services will not be stopped immediately,
an appeals court ruled Monday to uphold an injunction to halt the
trading of copyrighted music ““ which has been allowed by the
UC system.

The injunction was initially issued by district court judge
Marilyn Hall Patel.

Due to its “overbroad” outline the injunction was
stayed, though the court said a viable case for copyright
infringement was made by the Recording Industry Association of
America. Until the injunction is modified, Napster will be allowed
to continue its service.

Napster and the RIAA were unavailable for comment.

The RIAA has opposed Napster ever since the service made itself
available in 1999. It sued Napster in December alleging the service
helps foster massive piracy among its estimated pool of 50 million
users.

Napster countered the argument by claiming its services exposes
uprising musicians to a network of potential customers, and its
practices constitute “fair use” by music consumers
through MP3 file sharing.

They argued that MP3 sharing is protected under the 1992 Audio
Home Recording Act, which allows consumers to make digital
recordings for personal use.

The court struck down that argument by saying a personal
computer is not a recording device.

Last September, the UC system received a request from Howard
King, the attorney for Metallica in its legal battle against
Napster. King proposed that the UC strike down Napster use on its
campuses but the UC decided to let the service stand.

“I’m proud to say we agreed a long time ago that we
wouldn’t monitor the traffic of our students,” said
Michael Schilling, director of the UCLA Student Technology Center.
“And that remains today.”

Without a means or intent to monitor students and their computer
use, it’s nearly impossible to track the number of Napster
users on campus, said Schilling.

The RIAA attests the online music exchange could lead to the
loss of more than $300 million in profits attributed to lower music
sales, particularly in respect to the widespread use of Napster at
universities across the nation.

A report issued by VNU Marketing’s SoundScan has shown
that sales in record stores near universities have declined by 4
percent over the last two years. These record stores are more
indicative because universities tend to have a higher rate of
Napster use than elsewhere.

The rest of the country has seen a 20 percent boom in music
retail sales.

At face value, the numbers seem to indicate Napster is
accountable for the decline in sales. But online music stores and
the ability to burn store-bought CDs may be unseen factors
contributing to this loss, according to the SoundScan report.

“I’m sure (Napster) has affected us to some extent,
but it’s kind of hard to gauge,” said Mike Lindsey,
manager of Penny Lane record store in Westwood. “We have a
pretty liberal return policy and there’s been more of a
problem with someone abusing that policy ““ burning a CD and
bringing it back, than anything with Napster. It’s a further
manifestation of home taping and that has sort of always been
around.”

Napster proponents argue that Napster may actually increase
record sales by providing a “preview” service to music
out in the market.

“It’s a really good way to sample new stuff without
having to shell out a ton of money,” said Marie Yang, a
first-year electrical engineering student who has used Napster to
download more than 400 files. “It’s not like I
don’t buy CDs any more, it’s just that I usually wait
until I know that there are a few songs on the CD that I like
before I buy it.”

Looking ahead, Napster plans to dodge the injunction by
cooperating with the German publishing corporation, Bertelsmann, to
establish a subscription version of its services that would charge
users a fee in order to pay royalties.

Napster anticipates making the subscription available by June or
July 2001.

With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.