MP3 COPS ON THE NAPSTER BEAT November 24 2000 dotmusic.com EMusic spies on Napster users... could you be accused? Controversial file-sharing company Napster has a new nemesis: EMusic.com, a pay-per-download music website which reckons Napster users are pirating its tracks. In a bid to protect its catalogue of digital distribution rights (which includes Elvis Costello and They Might Be Giants), Emusic has created a special software program that identifies which of its files are being swapped through Napster using "acoustic fingerprinting" techniques. When it finds an Emusic track in a Napster fan's public shared MP3 folder, the system sends an instant message to the user requesting that they delete the track or move it into a private folder within 24 hours. Emusic has been scanning Napster since Tuesday noting the details of all those file-swappers who have failed to comply with its request and is now preparing to take the list to Napster and demand that those usernames are blocked. Under the bounds of the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Napster must respond to such evidence of direct copyright- and last time, when handed Metallica's 300,000-strong list of alleged copyright infringers, the company decided to ban them from using the service rather than risk further action. Nevertheless, the file-sharing company's boss Hank Barry still believes that "person-to-person, non-commercial file sharing" to be "entirely within law." Barry says he will be "reviewing EMusic's interaction with the Napster system" to see if it breaks its stringent privacy and usage policy. Meanwhile, EMusic's president Gene Hoffman points out that his software, created by two programmers in just three weeks, makes a mockery of Napster's claims that it cannot monitor what songs are transferred through its conduits. "This shows it was an incompetence defence", he jeers: "Your Honour, we are too dumb to implement this technology." comment on this article e-mail this to a friend start a discussion [about i-drive] writing index thoughts dotmusic index Problems? Questions? Suggestions? Contact me: mail@tobyslater.com back to top back to home page

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