The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week held that Napster users were likely infringing music copyrights and that the Napster service could be held liable for those infringements. The Court did not immediately halt the MP3 file-swapping service, but sent the injunction it had stayed last year back to the district court to be narrowed. Napster may be required to remove works identified as unauthorized by their copyright owners, which could force the service to shut down.
Latest News
By CARL S. KAPLAN
One legal observer says the Napster decision is far from a mortal blow to other music file-sharing systems. Indeed, he believes the ruling could give added legal protection to more decentralized file-swapping Internet-ba sed systems, such as Gnutella and its many clones.
Date: February 23, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
The Internet is a revolutionary medium whose long-term benefits we are only beginning to fathom. But that is no reason to allow it to become a duty-free zone where people can plunder the intellectual property of others w ithout paying for it.
Date: February 14, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Opinion
To the Editor:
Date: February 16, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Opinion
By KELLY ALEXANDER
Last week's federal court ruling that Napster abets copyright infringement hit many aficionados with a desperate, last-days-of-disco feeling.
Date: February 18, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Living
By REUTERS
Napster's commercial rivals saw got a green light from investors Monday after a federal court ruled that the free Internet song-swapping service must stop unauthorized trafficking in copyrighted material.
Date: February 12, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The song-swapping technology Napster popularized is here to stay. Programmers have developed variations that won't be so easy for the recording industry to stop.
Date: February 12, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By MICHAEL BRICK
By swapping music files online, the 61 million clients of Napster are making unfair use of copyrighted material, a federal appeals court ruled today, in a decision that could allow a judge to shut down the service.
Date: February 12, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By MATT RICHTEL
Napster proposed giving $1 billion over 5 years to record companies, including the major record labels that sued the music-sharing company after accusing it of abetting copyright infringement.
Date: February 20, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By MICHAEL BRICK
Napster Inc. was dealt a serious legal setback, as a federal appeals court ruled that the millions of people who exchange music on its online service were infringing on copyrights and that the company needed to stop this infringement.
Date: February 12, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By MATT RICHTEL
Napster plans to start charging users this summer to exchange music files online, and the company said it had proposed giving $1 billion over five years to record companies.
Date: February 21, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS (AP) -- French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal says its joint music distribution venture with Sony will have tens of thousands of songs on the Internet by this summer, countering free music-swapping.
Date: February 22, 2001
Source: AP | Section: Business
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) -- Music executives on Wednesday shook off Napster's offer to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit, saying it didn't offer a viable business model and failed to address concerns over the security of onli ne music.
Date: February 21, 2001
Source: AP | Section: Business
By CLEA SIMON
The legal issues may still be in play, and the technical outcome is anyone's guess. But in a forum on the Napster controversy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week, it was the ethical issues that took ce nter stage.
Date: February 19, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By AMY HARMON
After Monday's court ruling that Napster should be prohibited from enabling the swapping of copyrighted music, fans of the service discussed alternatives in online chat rooms. Few seemed inclined to return to the record store.
Date: February 13, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By MATT RICHTEL
A federal appeals court dealt a major setback to Napster, which has allowed people to copy music free over the Internet, by largely affirming a lower court ruling that the company encourages the infringement of copyright ed works.
Date: February 13, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By MATT RICHTEL
Napster executives scrambled to chart a legal and business future for the online music service a day after it sustained a crippling legal blow.
Date: February 14, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By JON PARELES
Napster is considerably more than an online shoplifting service. What Napster has done is to provide access, from any Internet connection, to nearly every recording anyone could want.
Date: February 14, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By CARL S. KAPLAN
Ian C. Ballon, an expert in Internet law, likens the recent judicial scrutiny on Napster to the lights coming back up after a prolonged blackout.
Date: February 16, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
While American music producers pursue their court battle against Napster, European composers and record companies are waging their own war against unauthorized copying: the personal computers that do the actual work.
Date: February 13, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
INTERNETNAPSTER COURT DATE The date has been set for the next legal proceeding in the matter of the record companies versus Napster. On March 2, at 10 a.m., all sides are scheduled to appear at a hearing that may determi ne when Napster, which permits users to exchange music free over the Internet, will cease to exist in its current incarnation. The hearing is before Chief Judge Marilyn Patel of the United States District Court in San Fr ancisco. Judge Patel issued a preliminary injunction in July ordering Na
Date: February 22, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
Napster Reined In
Date: February 18, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: WeekinReview
By PAULINA BORSOOK
In the whole foofaraw around Napster, what mostly got lost was the artists. No one is really that concerned about the actual creators of intellectual property.
Date: February 23, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Opinion
By PAUL MELLER
In a nod to the music industry, the European Parliament on Wednesday approved a directive that the European Union will use to extend the coverage of existing national copyright laws to digital technology and the Internet .
Date: February 15, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Business
By GREGG WAGER
The home computer revolution may soon chalk up another casualty: the recording studio - that shrine where many a music legend has been born.
Date: February 10, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Technology
Additional Resources
MP3 Players and Accessories
Grab a Player: From Webmonkey; provides links to various MP3 players and accessories.
MP3 Players: MPEG.org provides links to available MP3 players by platform and information about configuring web browsers to enable streaming content.
MP3 Software: From MPEG3.com; links to players, decoders/encoders, rippers, skins and accessories.
MP3.com Software: MP3.com provides reviews of and links to popular MP3 software products.
MPEG3 Hardware: From MPEG3.com; portable MP3 players and the latest in MP3 hardware devices.
MP3 Search Engines
MP3 Search Engines: From Searchenginewatch.com; links to a number of popular MP3 search sites.
Popular MP3 and MP3 Artist Sites
MP3 Information Resources
Find/Play MP3s: A Webmonkey Guide; provides a superficial summary of the MP3 controversy, links to MP3 players and accessories and a guide to finding MP3 files on the web.
Layer-3 Information: FAQ page from Fraunhofer IIS-A, developers of MP3 technology.
MP3 Portal: From MPEG.org; tons of MP3 related links organized by topic and complete with an MP3 news search feature.
Soundbyting.com: An RIAA website which aims to curb online music piracy by providing students and educators with information about copyrights and penalties for online infringement.
MP3 News Resources
MP3 Rocks the Web: Wired News coverage of everything MP3
The Future of MP3
Jesse Berst, "Where Next for Digital Music? (You Won't Like It)": Predicts that AOL-TimeWarner will move to create a proprietary format for online music.
John Gartner, "Digital Music Will Cost You": Jeremy Silver, vice president of new media at EMI, makes predictions about the future of online music and its increasing cost to consumers.
Jimmy Guterman, "MP3 Death Watch": Suggests that MP3's days on the forefront may soon come to an end.
Eric Scheirer, "MPEG-4: The New Standard": Introduction to the next generation MPEG coding specifications from one of the code editors.
Karen Solomon, "Record Profits": Discusses the formats which may come to replace MP3 as the standard in compression technology.
Michael Stroud, "A Music Industry Death Knell": Predicts a major shift in the way that music is sold, with the MP3.com sales model taking the lead and the traditional methods of music distribution moving towards obsolescence.
Materials on Copyright Materials
Betsy Rosenblatt, "Copyright Basics", Spring 1998
Cyberspace Law Institute, Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers (see lessons 2-12)
Federal Copyright Office Primer
USENET Copyright FAQ by Terry Carrol
Copyright Link Sites
Stanford University Copyright & Fair Use site
Articles Related to Copyright and the Internet
Don Biederman, "Copyright Trends: With Friends Like These...," Fall, 1999: Written by the vice president and general counsel for Warner/Chappel Music, the article explores a number of changes in copyright law which occured during the last decade of the twentieth century
Anne
K. Fujita, "The Great Internet Panic: How Digitization is Deforming Copyright
Law," 2 J. TECH. L. &
POL'Y
1, 1996.
Mark A. Lemley, "Dealing with Overlapping Copyrights on the Internet": Article is available for download from the site.
Yee
Fen Lim, "The Application of the Doctrines of Contributory Infringement
and Vicarious Liability to Internet
Service
Providers", 3 W. Va. J. L. & Tech. 2, March 15, 1999.
Bob Kohn, "Primer on the Law of Webcasting and Digital Music Delivery," September, 1998. Article detailing the music licensing process and the legal complexities introduced by the phenonmenon of webcasting.
Music Licensing Organizations
ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
BMI: Broadcast Music, Inc.
Cases
Recording Industry Ass'n of America v. Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc., 180 F.3d 1072, 1074 (9th Cir. 1999) (summary | full text)
Sony Corp. v. Universal Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984) (summary | full text)
RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc.
ResourcesRIAA v. MP3.comStreambox response to RealNetworks suit
Articles
"Streaming Audio Ruling a Win-Win": Results of first round in the RealNetworks v. Streambox suit, with comments from both parties.
Christopher Jones, "A River of Music -- To Go": Explains the technological effect of Streambox's controversial "Ripper" software on RealAudio encryption.
Christopher Jones, "Real Screaming Over Streaming": Details the RealNetworks v. Streambox controversy.
ResourcesRIAA v. NapsterRIAA Complaint: Provided by MP3.com.
Letter from RIAA's President and CEO, Hillary Rosen, to Michael Robertson ,CEO of MP3.com, notifying him of the RIAA suit filed against MP3.com in Federal District Court in New York and Michael Robertson's Letter to Hillary Rosen in Response.
Articles
"MP3.com Files Suit Against RIAA": From MP3.com; MP3.com files a responsive suit against the RIAA.
"MP3.com Stores Your CDs": Describes the MP3.com services that are now under attack from the RIAA.
Matt Carolan, "Pirates of the Internet": Discusses the allegations against MP3.com as well as discussing generally "current" events relating to copyright on the Internet.
Christopher Jones, "RIAA Sues MP3.com": Provides some legal analysis of MP3.com's potential liability.
Mark Lewis, "Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3.Com": Q & A session with Michael Robertson regarding the RIAA v. MP3.com suit (see particularly part 2).
Courtney Macavinta, "RIAA Sues MP3.com, Alleges Copyright Violations": Estimates the damages MP3.com may owe should it be found liable for copyright infringement.
Jim Hu, "MP3.com's New Features Get Mixed Reception": Describes MP3.com personalization services, Beam-It and the Instant Listening Service.
ResourcesRIAA Press Release on Napster Suit
Articles
Janelle Brown, "MP3 Crackdown": Discusses the RIAA's allegations against Napster as well as RIAA crackdowns on university piracy.
Robert Lemos, "Napster Plays Dodgeball with Music Biz": Discusses some of the copyright claims that could be brought against the Napster service.
Courtney Macavinta, "Recording Industry Sues Music Start-Up, Cites Black Market": Explains some of the Napster features and describes some of the copyright complexities raised by the suit.
Chris Oakes, "Time for a Napster Rest?": Describes Internet traffic bottlenecks on university computer systems attributable to wide-scale Napster use on campus networks and efforts to block access to the site by some university administrators.
Mark Pesce, "Napster, The Media Network That Might Upstage The Web": Provides some detail on how the Napster service operates.
Scott Rosenberg, "The Napster Files": Provides some detail on how the Napster service operates.
Statutory Law
The Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 et. seq.
http://www.hrrc.org/DMCA-leg-hist.html. Text of Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the conference report, and other portions of the legislative history. This page is maintained by the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), an advocacy group organized "to protect the right to use VCRs, audio recorders and computers for private, non-commercial purposes.
Ronald G. Dunn, Information Industry Association, H.R. 2281 and H.R. 2180 Hearings before House Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee (Sep.16, 1997).Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995, 17 U.S.C. 106(6) and 114Mike Kirk, American Intellectual Property Association, H.R. 2281 and H.R. 2180 Hearings before House Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee (Sep.16, 1997).
Honorable Bruce Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, H.R. 2281 and H.R. 2180 Hearings before House Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee (Sep.16, 1997).
Roy Neel, United States Telephone Association, H.R. 2281 and H.R. 2180 Hearings before House Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee (Sep.16, 1997).
Jonathan Band, "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act": Memorandum summarizing key points of the Act.
Miscellaneous
Home Recording Rights Coalition
Berne Convention (liks to full text)
Berne Article 2 (defining the scope of copyright protection granted under the treaty)Universal Copyright Convention, Paris, 1971Berne Article 9 (right of reproduction)
Berne Article 13 (sound recordings)
WIPO Copyright Treaty of 1996 (summary) | (full text)
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty of 1996
World Trade Agreement 1994 (establishing the WTO and including GATT 1994)
Articles
Robin D. Gross, "Swedish Court Exonerates Teen of Internet Music Piracy": Prosecutorial charges brought against a teenager who was linking to pirated music files from his website were dismissed after a Swedish court found that the teen did not "copy, distribute or spread the pirated music files" and, thus, was not guilty of music piracy.
Christopher Jones, "Swedish Retailer Pushes MP3": Swedish company claims to be the first in Europe to offer secure digital music distribution.
Patrizia Piccolo, "Music Copyright": Canadian perspective of music and copyright from a student-at-law.
Statutes
Australian Copyright Act of 1968
Informational Sites
Articles, Analysis and Letters from the Dec. 1996 WIPO Diplomatic Conference in Geneva
World Intellectual Property Organization
World Trade Organization Intellectual Property Index
International Copyright Protection: From Findlaw.
International Trade Instruments, Treaties, Conventions, Model Laws, Rules
Doing Business in Argentina: See paragraph 4.4 on copyright.
EU Amended proposal for Directive on copyright and related rights
Link Sites
Franklin Piece Intellectual Property Mall: International intellectual property links
Dan's Australian Law Index: Maintains a list of copyright links available from topics index.
European
Commission's Intellectual Property Section
Prepared by
Professor Andreas Teuber:
February 19, 2001 - 12:02:29 PM
Edited and Updated, February 22, 2001
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