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The ghost of Napster appears in court

21 April 2004 12:22 by Jari Ketola | 5 comments

Even though the former P2P service Napster has long been burried, and even resurrected in the format of a legal online music store, Bertelsmann AG (BMG) is still haunted by its investment in the company four years ago.

On April 27 BMG will return to court to face a lawsuits brought against the company by music labels and publishers. The lawsuits claim that by funding Napster BMG kept the peer-to-peer network running for an extra eight months which resulted in damages of $17 billion to the industry in lost sales. That's $71 million per day.

According to BMG the investments in Napster were made in hopes of turning the site into a legal, licensed service, and the claims made by the plaintiffs will prove difficult to win.

Many plaintiffs are accusing Bertelsmann of "tertiary infringement", which means that they see that by funding Napster Bertelsmann legitimized the service, and opened the Pandora's box that is still releasing new peer-to-peer services today.

Source: News.com

Permalink to this article

Bertelsmann and UMG announce Napster litigation settlement (6 September 2006)

The old Napster case not dismissed (15 July 2004)

Napster to liquidate (4 September 2002)

Bankruptcy judge blocks the sale of Napster (3 September 2002)

Napster files for Chapter 11 (3 June 2002)

Bertelsmann acquires Napster (17 May 2002)

Napster CEO quits (14 May 2002)

Bertelsmann to take over Napster? (6 April 2002)

Napster and labels granted a stay in legal process (24 January 2002)

Napster gets more funding from Bertelsmann (26 October 2001)

Bertelsmann licenses technology from Napster (23 October 2001)

Napster gets a new CEO from Bertelsmann (25 July 2001)

Bertelsmann gets ready for the launch of legal Napster (11 July 2001)

Judge issues injunction in Napster case (6 March 2001)

Napster will go legal in mid 2001 (14 February 2001)

Napster makes a deal with BMG (31 October 2000)

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Discuss this article!
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 22 April 2004 6:36
"Many plaintiffs are accusing Bertelsmann of "tertiary infringement", which means that they see that by funding Napster Bertelsmann legitimized the service, and opened the Pandora's box that is still releasing new peer-to-peer services today." Now that�s just bullshit. [ + quote]
lcarbutt (Senior Member) 22 April 2004 6:52
$17 billion is nothing to the entertainment industry. I say napster is DEAD, you got what you want now just let it go. 1.NAPSTER=DEAD 2.KAZZAA=DYING 3.SUPERNOVA= NEXT ON THE LIST I RECKON [ + quote]
Vular (Member) 22 April 2004 7:21
Anyone hear about this new p2p called MUTE? http://mute-net.sourceforge.net/ I would say the futureof p2p looks somthing like this. This Is No Ice Cream Social! [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22 April 2004 7:29
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 22 April 2004 7:47
Worth a try. [ + quote]
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 25 April 2004 4:00
Off topic maybe, but this one�s real quick. Mute first impressions: A lack of search results and quite slow downloads. Though I guess this is because the app isn�t very known yet and because it�s only at a 0.3 state. I like the simplistic design. very easy to use. Hopefully this program will catch on as as strong alternative once it�s developed a bit further. [ + quote]