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Set Napster damages: labels
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August 8, 2001: 7:15 p.m. ET
Industry files for summary judgment against Napster for copyright damages
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - With Napster reeling on the ropes, the major record labels want a federal judge to land a knockout punch by issuing a summary judgment for damages for copyright infringement.
In a filing Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, the Recording Industry Association of America argued that Napster is liable for damages for the infringement and asked for a quick resolution.
"No case could be more appropriate for summary judgment on both liability and on willfulness," the RIAA's lawyers wrote in the brief. "Napster set out to build, and was enormously successful in building, a business based on the intentional, massive infringment of plaintiffs copyrighted music."
"Napster's Web site advertised the piratical nature of the system by bragging that, `With Napster, you'll never come up empty handed when searching for your favorite music again'," the attorneys wrote.
The recording industry also said Napster benefited financially from the free trade of copyright music, because the company based its value on the quantity and quality of songs available through its network.
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No case could be more appropriate for summary judgment on both liability and on willfulness.
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RIAA attorneys |
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Napster attorneys were not immediately available for comment.
Record industry attorneys asked for an Oct. 1 hearing with Patel on the summary judgment request.
Patel ruled last year that Napster's free swapping of copyright songs is illegal and issued an injunction forcing the company to closely police its system for pirated music if it wanted to stay in business.
Napster's song-trading network has been offline since July 2, when it took down the system to comply with that order and improve filters that weed out copyrighted music.
Patel later told the company to remain offline until it could offer a foolproof service able to screen out every single unauthorized song. Napster appealed the judge's order and an appellate court allowed Napster to resume its service, but the company has yet to come back online.
In February, Napster offered $1 billion to the recording industry to settle the suit. The offer was flatly rejected, in part because Napster never had the money it proposed for the settlement.
The company said it could earn the money by forming a partnership with the recording industry to offer a fee-based service.
The record companies are seeking the maximum statutory damages of $100,000 for each work infringed and believe the total amount of damages will exceed $100 million. No trial date has been set.
Since Napster took its service down, online music fans have turned to other services such as Kazaa and Gnutella for free music downloads. Some of Kazaa's servers are located outside of the U.S. and Gnutella is a decentralized network of computer users – factors that make those services hard to corral.
-- from staff and wire reports 
-- from staff and wire reports
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