Napster returns

But will users warm to it after its lengthy rehab...

Napster taken an important step away from its 'free music' origins with the introduction of its service to stop the unauthorised sharing of copyrighted files.

A test version of the service has been launched today and will be used by 20,000 volunteers. However, it will only be used on material from smaller, independent record labels.

Napster will not fully launch the service until it is able to get content from the major labels. It expects this to happen some time towards the end of the first quarter.

The final version will cost between $5 and $10 a month for 50 downloads. Napster has been quiet since mid last year when a number of major record labels sued it for breach of copyright on artists' music.