EMusic’s new software to hinder Napster use

Derek Caney

NEW YORK: Internet music company EMusic Inc. said on Tuesday it will start

using technology newly designed to hamper distribution of its songs over

controversial song-swapping service Napster.

EMusic, which sells music in the form of digital files that can be downloaded

onto personal computers, has designed software that scans and analyzes the

digital music files on the Napster service. The software determines whether

those files were originally downloaded from EMusic and sends messages requesting

their rapid withdrawal from Napster's service.

EMusic's catalog includes acts like Elvis Costello, They Might Be Giants and

Phish.

Napster, which is being sued over copyright claims, allows users logged on to

the Internet to see the music files that others have stored in their computers.

Using Napster's software, users can search and download songs from other

people's computers. The vast majority of these songs have not been licensed by

artists, recording companies, or publishers.

EMusic's move underscores the security and copyright issues raised by

downloadable music technology. New formats, such as MP3, which is used by both

EMusic and Napster, have created the potential to store, send and listen to

music in the form of small digital files.

Napster is being sued by the world's five largest record labels - Time Warner

Inc.'s Warner Brothers music group, Sony Music Entertainment, Seagram Co.'s

Universal Music Group, Bertelsmann AG's music unit, BMG, and EMI Group Plc. They

claim that the service violates copyright laws. Napster has denied the charge.

"We have artists and labels who have embraced technology," EMusic

chief executive Gene Hoffman told Reuters. "These are people who trust

their customers. This software gives them a way to continue to trust those

customers."

If the software finds an EMusic file on Napster, the software sends an

automatic message to the user who had designated that file for sharing via

Napster, asking him or her to withdraw the song from the Napster service within

24 hours.

If the Napster user fails to comply, EMusic will ask Napster to block that

person from using the song-swapping service.

Hoffman acknowledged that the software was not the most "elegant"

way of dealing with the problem. He said, however, that Napster had refused to

implement what he called the easiest solution, which would be to block access to

those songs, based on the software's analysis of the files.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.