San Francisco — A federal judge Tuesday laid down the law to Napster, saying that once the recording industry comes up with a list of copyright songs it wants removed from the music-swapping service, Napster will have 72 hours to comply.
The order effectively gives the recording industry control over the immediate fate of the Internet music service that lets computer users download popular songs for free.
Meanwhile, Napster was hit on another legal front Tuesday when the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the producers of the Grammy Awards, filed a copyright infringement suit.
The academy's suit mirrors the ones filed by the recording industry. The academy is seeking to prohibit Napster from allowing its millions of users from downloading and sharing recordings of live performances aired at last month's 43rd annual awards show.
Napster is fighting to stay online and retain its popularity while promising to shift over to a subscription-based service that charges listeners and pays royalties to artists. For that, it needs the cooperation of the music labels that sued Napster for copyright infringement.
Napster, which has struggled with little success in the last few days to screen out some songs already identified by record labels, faces a contempt of court order if it can't comply. Chief executive officer Hank Barry said Napster will follow the court's order.
"If Napster complies with what this injunction says, it will be to our satisfaction," said Howard King, an attorney for heavy metal band Metallica and rapper-producer Dr. Dre in their $10 million lawsuits against Napster. "It's technologically doable. The question is, is Napster going to go to the necessary steps to do it?"
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.