From today's NY Times:
"Judge Grants a Suspension of Lawsuit on Napster
By MATT RICHTEL
AN FRANCISCO, Jan. 23 — A federal judge has granted a request by four of the five major record companies to suspend their three- year-old lawsuit against Napster, the Internet music service that exploded in popularity by allowing users to freely exchange songs and was deemed by the record companies a threat to their existence.
The order, by Judge Marilyn Patel of Federal District Court in San Francisco, released today to parties in the lawsuit, grants only a 30-day suspension, but it underscores a turnabout in the strategy by the music companies and a possible shift in momentum in their case.
People close to the lawsuit said the industry might have requested the suspension because of fears that some aspects of the case were going against it....
Cary Sherman, general counsel for the recording association, said another reason that the companies requested the stay was that Judge Patel was set to issue orders that would have made the litigation "more burdensome." Mr. Sherman declined to elaborate, except to say that the orders pertained to discovery of evidence and would "get the parties more enmeshed in litigation and less focused on resolution."
Several people close to the case said, however, that the record companies' real motivation in asking for a suspension was that Judge Patel had threatened to issue an order that would have hurt their own case. Specifically, these people said, Judge Patel may have been planning to look more closely at whether the labels had negotiated in good faith in their licensing discussions with Napster.
Napster has said all along that the labels have put it in an impossible position: asserting that Napster should charge for music but, according to Napster, not negotiating in good faith to make their music available for subscription service. The labels have countered that they have negotiated in good faith but that Napster has not offered fair terms.
Napster has not been alone in questioning the record companies' behavior.
The Justice Department said in October that it had begun an antitrust investigation into whether the companies were involved in anticompetitive behavior in the online market, including, people within the industry said, seeking documents pertaining to the licensing of music over the Internet...."
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What a shock....
HTH
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Topic: Napster litigation (Read 2322 times)