Napster users triumphant, but questions persist

The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided late on Friday afternoon to block an injunction that would have shut Napster down.

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel had given the original directive on Wednesday last week, when she ordered Napster to shut down by Saturday. She said the site is encouraging "wholesale infringing" of copyrights. In an unusually strong-worded decision, she said: "When the infringing is of such as wholesale magnitude, the plaintiffs are entitled to enforce their copyrights."

But Napster appealed. It claimed if it could not offer its service, it would be forced to lay off its 40-odd employees.

"This would effectively destroy Napster," the company's representatives pleaded in court. And, they argued, if the company is shut down, the case would end without the proper hearing it deserves.

The appeals judges agreed with Napster, saying "substantial questions have been raised about the merits and form of the [earlier] injunction".

They blocked it until further arguments can be heard, starting on 18 August. However, given the complexity of the case, pundits are speculating it could be months before a decision is made either way, and even then an appeal is likely, possibly even working its way to the US Supreme Court.

Napster is by no means out of the woods yet. This stay is no more than a temporary measure and Judge Patel has already shown that she isn't buying Napster's use of the so-called Betamax defence, named after the case where Sony argued VCRs are not illegal.

The basis of this is that taping broadcast television is allowed under the 'fair use' exception of copyright law.

But most lawyers think it is a stretch to apply this to Napster.

One copyright lawyer familiar with the case, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "I don't think that they will get away with arguing fair use. Napster just isn't the same as taping TV."

Meanwhile, Napster users were jubilant. Chat rooms filled with users celebrating.

"Hell just froze over," said one user, while yamuka claimed that "NAPSTER RULES!!!"

One user had a slightly less orthodox approach - zX0#0Xz's contribution to the debate was: "I say we beat the hell otta (sic) the guy from Metallica who started this whole thing."

Napster's servers are still online, Metallica and others in the music industry are still protesting, and the arguments continue.