U.S. Government Deals Napster a Blow

SAN FRANCISCO (09/08/2000) - The U.S. federal government has dealt a blow to Napster Inc. in the company's legal battle with the recording industry by arguing that the music file-sharing service is not protected by the Home Recording Act of 1992, as Napster had claimed.

In a friend of the court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in California on Friday, the U.S. Copyright Office said that Napster's service falls outside of the definitions used in the Home Recording Act, which allows the public to make copies of music for personal use.

The brief is not binding, but appears to bolster the validity of a lower court ruling against Napster in July, in which U.S. District Court Judge Marylin Hall Patel determined that the company's service had contributed to the widespread violation of copyrights. Napster's service allows users to freely exchange digital recordings of songs over the Internet. [See, "Judge in Napster Hearing Finds in Favor of Music Firms," July 26.]Patel issued a preliminary injunction requiring Napster to prevent its members from trading copyrighted material -- a requirement that Napster argued was technically unfeasible and would effectively shut the service down. Napster appealed the ruling and was granted a reprieve a few days later by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which stayed the injunction pending the outcome of Napster's appeal.

The Copyright Office said it filed the friend of the court brief, or "amicus curiae," because it has an obligation to provide courts with "information and assistance" on issues related to copyright cases. The brief was co-submitted with the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In it, the Copyright Office argued that Napster's service isn't protected by the Home Recording Act because users exchange music using personal computers and hard disks, and not using any of the devices specified in the Act. Furthermore, the Copyright Office said, by downloading music files to a personal computer, Napster's users are not creating "digital musical recordings" in the strict sense that was defined in the 1992 Act.

The Copyright Office's brief comes just hours before the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which filed the lawsuit against Napster late last year, is due to file its own brief in the case. The RIAA is expected to ask the appeals court to uphold Judge Patel's ruling.

Also Friday, the Motion Picture Association of America, along with 19 other organizations that represent creative artists, filed a separate friend of the court brief with the Appeals court. In it, it slammed Napster as a company that has built a business that "relies on the theft of copyrighted materials." [See "Creative Groups Slam Napster in Court Brief," Sept. 8]Napster, meanwhile, has argued vehemently that its service does not violate any laws, and that the company and its users are protected by the Home Recording Act.

Two weeks ago, a coalition of IT and consumer electronics companies, including the 600-member Consumer Electronics Association, submitted a friend of the court brief of their own in which they criticized the decision against Napster.

In the brief, the groups criticized Judge Patel, arguing that she had misinterpreted and misapplied laws in the case. The brief also said her ruling infringed on the U.S.'s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and threatened future technological innovation on the Internet.

Napster's appeal is due to be heard in the first week of October before a three-judge panel in San Francisco, a spokesman for the company said today.

Napster, based in San Mateo, California, can be reached at +1-650-373-3800 or http://www.napster.com/.

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