Napster review and update
A 3-judge panel will eventually decide whether or not the injunction against Napster, now boasting 36 million users, will be upheld, overturned or sent back to Judge Marilyn Hall Patel who first ordered the service closed. According to legal observers, the appeals court's lack of urgency bodes will for Napster, at least in the short run.
In related news, The Register has published an article putting forth some of the detail on how Utah's conservative Senator Orrin Hatch went from a champion of the music recording industry's point-of-view to one of the staunchest defenders of Napster.
Also germane to the Napster case is MP3.com's legal challenge of the validity of music copyrights as they stand now, treating a song not as a work of art but as "work for hire."
To read an update on the Napster case, go to thestandard.com.
For the Hatch story, see theregister.co.uk.
For the "work for hire" story, click wired.com.
