Okay, okay, here’s the deal: I was originally going to talk about my recent adventures with a program named "Time Matters." It’s what’s generically called "case management software" and can be used by various professionals, including lawyers (like moi), accountants, architects, financial planners, etc. Pretty cool program. I’m running much of my law practice with it now. Big and complex, but not all that expensive ($500 for two users)...but.…

But I can’t talk about that. It’s those damn Napster guys. There’s just too much going on, even as I hunt-&-peck here. So Napster and file-sharing it’s going to have to be, once again.

Well. Napster. Play taps. It’s wide-open file-sharing system is being reined in as I speak. The Nap-guys are instituting a filtering system as I write this on March 4, 2001 that will prevent copyrighted material from being shared over the Internet if the copyright holders don’t give permission. This is a preemptive strike by the Napster guys, as the ruling from the federal district court in California is expected shortly.

Oh. You don’t know the latest? Background: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) along with some rockers (e.g. "Dr. Dre" and the heavy-metal band Metallica) sued in federal court in California some months ago to shut the Napster online music-file-sharing phenomenon down, citing wholesale, worldwide copyright law violation. The federal judge who heard the case, Marilyn Patel, evidenced quite a strong hostility toward the Napster defendants, and in July 2000 entered an immediate injunction saying that Napster had the responsibility to block all sharing of all copyrighted works. Napster responded that they didn’t have that ability, and such a ruling was tantamount to shutting down the service.

So...Napster took an instantaneous appeal to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, also in California, and they entered what’s called a "stay," stopping the lower court injunction from going into effect. Then the Napster guys hired some very heavy-hitting legal talent to argue the case in front of the 9^th Circuit (and ultimately possibly the U.S. Supreme Court), David Boies (last seen arguing in front of the Florida Supreme Court and the Supremes in Washington in favor of Presidential candidate Al Gore).

Bottom line? On February 12, 2001 the 9^th Circuit ruled that the original injunctive ruling was unfair to Napster, and that the record companies had to specifically identify the copyrighted material they wanted blocked. Result: the case went back to the lower court for further proceedings and to fashion another injunction. Which gave rise to further flailing around by all the parties in the lower court. (However, the appellate court did decide that if it looks like copyright infringement, quacks like copyright infringement, and waddles like copyright infringement, then it must be copyright infringement under the law as it presently exists.)

That further injunction from the federal district court is expected any day now, with the RIAA and their rocker-backers asking the court to enter an order that would make it necessary to shut down the Napster service entirely. Well. Seeing as how Napster doesn’t only help its 64 million registered users to copy zillions of copyrighted songs, but also assists people in copying music which (a) has an expired copyright, (b) is uncopyrighted (often by struggling starving artists trying to make a name for themselves), or (c) is copyrighted but the owners of the copyright(s) have decided to give permission for everyone to share...well, shutting the Nap-thing down entirely might seem a bit extreme to many people.

But wait! Judge Patel this time isn’t showing the same hostility toward Napster that she did in the hearings last year. "We’re here to find out what the parties can live with, something that will work for everyone," the judge said during a hearing held on March 2, 2001.

But wait again! Napster is also appealing the decision of the 9^th Circuit, and the matter could be accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, in which case everything now pending before the district court in California would come to a screeching halt.

But wait again again! There’s another hearing scheduled for April 10, 2001, and at that hearing proposed class-action lawsuits by others ganging up on the Nappers—including independent record labels and music publishers—are scheduled to be discussed.

And wait, wait, wait yet again! A mediation among the parties is also scheduled for March 9, 2001, where they’re supposed to try to hash it all out in some manner that everyone can live with (but the music-people may not cooperate; they may say screw you to the Napster folks, wishing to make an example of them as they come up with plans to handle the Napster alternatives mentioned below).

So...bottom line is that Napster is today (or yesterday, or perhaps tomorrow) installing a filter system to protect copyrighted music in an effort to forestall the district court judge from entering an injunction that will shut them down entirely. In the meantime, Napster has frantically been trying to cut a deal with the RIAA where the Nap-people will be able to provide copyrighted music on some kind of subscription basis where subscribers will pay Napster, which in turn will fill the pockets of the RIAA and their musicians. But the RIAA, being greedy and evil, and smelling blood, hasn’t bitten so far.

Stay tuned for what the district court does. It’ll be on all the front pages and TV shows soon, perhaps before this even comes out in print.

Now, all that being the case, what is the rest of the world to do? I mean, everybody wants free music, and they don’t care whether it’s got any steenking copyright protection or not, and they want to keep stealing...er...sharing it.

Enter Gnutella, Bearshare.com, Napigator, the anarchist-designed Freenet, Aimster, Audiogalaxy Satellite, CuteMX, LimeWire, Hotline, iMesh...oh, there’re lots and lots of alternatives gurgling and bubbling and growing like bodysnatcher pods out there in Internet-land. As to how they work, I couldn’t say, and I leave it to all of you out there who want to steal...er...share copyrighted material to figure them out (and maybe write reports on how they work for the TPCUG Newsletter).

In the meantime, remember that it’s not only music that the struggle is being waged over. This battle is only the opening show for a war that will continue into the future. Music is just the first front in the war; ebooks and all other kinds of text are on the horizon, along with all types of picture or representational artwork to be argued over, and probably audiobooks and other types of readings will open yet another front in the war. Even farther on, when super-broadband access is available to us all, movies are going to be the battle zone du jour. But all that’s another struggle, and far in the future (say 12 to 24 months or so from now). u