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Napster to shut down

27 July 2000 4:21 by Jari Ketola

RIAA got what they were looking for. On Wednesday a federal judge issued an order shutting down Napster Inc.. According to the judge, evidence indicated Napster's popular song-swapping service could be a cover for piracy.
``When the infringing is of such a wholesale magnitude, the plaintiffs are entitled to enforce their copyrights,'' U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said after a two-hour hearing in San Francisco court.
Napster is instructed to cease trade in copyright-covered material by midnight on Friday.
``We are pleased with the court's decision. The decision will pave the way for the future of online music,'' said Cary Sherman, a lawyer representing the RIAA.
Napster, of course, disagrees with the ruling, and will continue to work hard to allow Napster users to continue to use their service by preparing for the Court of Appeals.

If Napster does infact get shut down on Friday night, it's good to know there's a whole bunch of alternative software available.
CuteMX has a rather strong user base, and is capable of sharing more than just MP3 files.
Scour Exchange, although in beta phase, has an impressive amount of users and media shared.
The idea behind Gnutella is appealing. Since it's fully distributed it will be hard to shut down.
iMesh is also rather nice, although not quite as popular as its counterparts.
And then there are of course numerous Open Source Napster clients that are not dependant on the Napster Inc. servers.

We will be following the twists and turns in the case closely, so keep your eyes peeled.

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