The End is Near (again) for Napster
The result of Friday’s hearing in the Napster case: The judge is drafting an injunction. Exactly when that takes effect, nobody knows. Meanwhile, Napster has made a preemptive strike: They’re starting to filter songs on the RIAA’s copyright list… The filtering should begin this weekend, and it’s strictly filename-based. Depending on how strict their filename matches are, this will either make the service completely useless for its intended purpose (violating music copyrights) or have no effect at all. I suspect the former. This action isn’t part of a settlement – it seems like they’re trying to appease the RIAA. I expect this is too little too late, and the record industry (aside from BMG) will not be happy until Napster’s out of business.