Cutting edge of electronics joins fight for Napster

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), issued a statement today condemning the ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in A&M Records v Napster.

Shapiro said: "We are greatly disappointed with this ruling. We believe that the Court of Appeals has ignored basic principles of copyright infringement and fair use established in the US Supreme Court's Sony Betamax decision... The Ninth Circuit is the same Circuit that ruled in 1981 that the VCR was illegal before the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court. If that decision had stood, we would have no VCR or movie rentals - to the detriment of Hollywood and American consumers." The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) represents more than 625 US companies involved in the design, development, manufacturing and distribution of audio, video, mobile electronics, communications, IT, multimedia and accessory products, as well as related services. Combined, these companies account for more than $70bn in annual sales. While intellectual property experts such as Shapiro debate whether the Court underplayed "fair use" considerations in the Napster case, Napster users - in chat rooms on and off the Napster site - are most concerned with how much longer they will have access to the song-swapping service. Since the court ruled that a new injunction that was not "overbroad" should be written by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, Napster continues to operate. It has only been enjoined to remove files identified by the record industry. This could take time. No one knows when Judge Patel will write a new injunction. Napster has vowed to appeal the court decision. While Napster users have alternative, and harder to regulate, sources for free music downloads, such as Gnutella and Freenet, both are much more complicated. As long as Napster continues to operate, it will remain the venue of choice. While the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has claimed the ruling a victory, Napster remains open for business for now amid user trepidations about when the free music site will die. As with the Sony case referred to by CEA's Shapiro, the Napster saga may only be in its infancy.