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Morning News

Napster Legal Woes Head for the Senate

Aired July 11, 2000 - 9:25 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as the Web site known as Napster is preparing to go another round with the music industry, Napster is facing a new challenge. This time, The Senate is getting involved.

CNN's Dennis Michael now takes a look at the heart of the issue: music distribution over the Internet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENNIS MICHAEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new round in the struggle over digital distribution of music over the Internet is scheduled today in Washington, Napster CEO Hank Barry and Michael Robertson of MP3.com will address the Senate Judiciary Committee, as will drummer Lars Ulrich of Metallica, whose band is pursuing a separate legal action against Napster.

LARS ULRICH, DRUMMER, METALLICA: Obviously, the Internet is the future. Let there be no question about that. But in whose conditions? Should it not be on the artists' conditions, or, if it's going to be -- if there is going to be an involvement of companies like Napster there should be dialogue between Napster-like companies and the artist.

MICHAEL: Napster participants, using the Napster web site, can share the contents of each other's libraries of MP3 music files free of charge. Since its inception, millions of music tracks have changed hands over the Internet, but the artists and the record labels have been cut out of the loop.

The Recording Industry Association of America is attempting to shutdown Napster with a lawsuit. For its part, Napster has filed court papers, basing its defense on sweeping legal principles that its operation is protected as freedom of speech, and that the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 makes file sharing, even by the millions, as legal as loaning a neighbor a videocassette movie, because it charges no fees.

Attorneys on the side of the RIAA have described these as "hail Mary" plays.

HILARY ROSEN, RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSN. OF AMERICA: It started out that they didn't know what people were doing on their system. Well, that has been proven not to be true. Now, what they are claiming is, they can't be responsible for something called "contributor," or vicarious, copyright infringement because they claim that the individual users are not infringing.

No, it is simply not true. I don't think there is going to be a copyright expert they can find who would make that claim with them.

MICHAEL: In a statement Monday, Napster defended its operation and denounced the RIAA lawsuits as, quoted here in part, "a cynical attempt to stifle a new technology that threatens the music establishment by empowering individuals to choose what they will listen to and when."

Dennis Michael, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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