Rather than impose additional restrictions, Napster
execs have decided to take advantage of the impulse.
Giving music listeners a central place to trade music
files, the company has gambled on its ability to steer
the resulting user traffic toward other commercial opportunities.
The sudden success of the Napster model has put the
fear in traditional record companies, with good reason.
Just days before my Palo Alto meeting with Stallman,
U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel granted a
request filed by the Recording Industry Association of
America for an injunction against the file-sharing
service. The injunction was subsequently suspended by
the U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals, but by early
2001, the Court of Appeals, too, would find the San
Mateo-based company in breach of copyright law,5 a
decision RIAA spokesperson Hillary Rosen would later
proclaim proclaim a "clear victory for the creative
content community and the legitimate online marketplace."See "A Clear Victory
for Recording Industry in Napster
Case," RIAA press release (February 12, 2001).
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