Hoping to head off a life-threatening injunction, lawyers for the embattled song swapper announced Friday they will voluntarily unveil a new system this weekend designed to filter out unauthorized music traded by its more than 50 million users.
Just how the heck they're going to do that still remains to be seen.
But Napster lawyer David Boies said in U.S. District Court Friday that the company was working diligently on a new screening system, in a hearing before Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who last July ordered the company to stop the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted MP3 music files.
Patel, who has been asked by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to modify her injunction against the company, did not issue a new injunction Friday. It's not clear when she will do so.
Boies' announcement, however, was clearly meant to show Napster's willingness to work within the law and avoid getting shut down. Napster said it will filter out one million file names through a system that would block search requests for unauthorized songs--most likely starting with those artists who have already asked for their work to be removed (like Dr. Dre and Metallica).
"We are working hard and fast to implement our new service," said Napster CEO Hank Barry in a statement. "Napster, in alliance with Bertelsmann's eCommerce Group, TVT, edel and many other independent labels and artists, has been working for months to put in place a new membership-based service that has a solid business model and secure technology."
With so many different file names out in the Napster abyss, filtering songs could still prove difficult. The company previously said it had no way of blocking out specific songs or artists.
For its part, the Recording Industry Association of America argued Friday that Napster could start the screening process by filtering out Billboard's top 100 singles, according to published reports.
Whatever Judge Patel ultimately decides, Napster has one last--albeit small--hope in court. The company recently asked for a full-panel hearing from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, after a three-judge panel ordered the company to stop its illegal song-swapping ways.
Still, Napster's announcement Friday appears to mark the beginning of the end for free-for-all swapping as we know it. With few options remaining, Barry recently acknowledged that the company would either have to settle their differences with the remaining major record labels, find a way to filter out unauthorized songs--or shut down altogether.
Megalabel BMG joined forces with Napster last October, agreeing to help build a legitimate file-sharing business. But two weeks ago, the remaining "Big Five" major labels--Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI--scoffed at Napster's last-ditch $1 billion offer to make a deal.
If a newly neutered Napster does appear over the weekend as promised, some observers believe its once-faithful users won't stick around.
"I think a lot of people are just going to dump Napster," says Jorge Gonzalez of Zeropaid.com, a Web portal for song-swapping alternatives like Gnutella, iMesh and BearShare. "When they sit at their computers, most people are going to go to Napster and find out their music isn't there. But it will be interesting to see how many songs [Napster] actually pulls down."
RIAA President Hilary Rosen released a statement Friday saying she looks forward to Patel's modified injunction.
"We are grateful for the court's diligent efforts to fashion an appropriate injunction and look forward to an order which makes clear that the infringing part of Napster's business--taking music which isn't theirs and giving it away--must come to an end," Rosen said.