De Amerikaanse platenmaffia heeft rechter Marilyn Hall Patel gevraagd om Napster neer te halen. Napster zet volgens de RIAA aan tot grootschalige copyright-schending en is schadelijk voor de muziekverkoop. Deze claim wordt ondersteund door een onderzoek onder 2555 studenten, waaruit zou blijken dat Napster wordt gezien als vervanging voor de traditionele CD:
The recording industry has asked a federal court judge for a preliminary injunction to shut down Napster as part of its lawsuit against the popular Internet song-sharing service.The Recording Industry Association of America filed a brief Monday asking U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel to grant the injunction preventing Napster from "facilitating or assisting others in, the copying, downloading, uploading, transmission or distribution of copyrighted musical works.''
The request was bolstered by declarations filed by Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti and MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson. Robertson supported the recording industry's claim that San Mateo, Calif.-based Napster's music-swapping service was a breeding ground for widespread copyright infringement.
[...] While Napster's central servers can be ordered off-line by the court, distributed network file-sharing systems communicate user-to-user It would require hundreds of thousands of injunctions to halt the widespread trade of content online.
Zie Altavista en Webwereld voor meer info (thanks Franky18 voor de tip).