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"We’re part of a bigger picture where technology will allow people to have access to more music, and that’s going to be good for the record industry."

FEELING BARRY GOOD...
FOR THE MOMENT

Napster CEO Stays Positive After Stay Is Granted
by Simon Glickman

Napster CEO Hank Barry hasn't had much sleep lately, but today's news that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had granted a stay on judge Marilyn Patel's injunction order has gotta feel pretty good. Obviously a glutton for punishment, Barry came back for a another helping of confusion with hitsdailydouble.com's resident Doctor of Disorder, Simon Glickman.

How are you enjoying your rollercoaster?

I started my week talking to this crowd with Russell Simmons and Chris Blackwell on this panel at Plug.In, and it seems like such a long time ago…

You started your week being yelled at, as I recall.

Well, I actually felt a lot of support in that room. The one speaker who said I was a Communist or something…

[Time Warner exec] richard parsons',390,400);">richard parsons',390,400);">Richard Parsons?

I think his talk actually had some good things in there, and we had a good panel—Mark Cuban talked about his new label, and Larry Kenswil, Russell, Chris and Nicholas Butterworth from MTVi. There was give-and-take, and it wasn't all about Napster.

You guys have had enough of the limelight.

We're part of a bigger picture where technology will allow people to have access to more music, and that's going to be good for the record industry.

Let's talk specifically about the stay being granted. You have a couple of weeks to appeal the injunction itself, yes?

Correct. I believe the argument is both about the substance of the case and about the scope of the injunction. So it's not just to have a discussion about the injunction; it's about the substance of the case. In order to get to the question of the proper scope for the injunction, you have to look at the subtantive issues regarding the AHRA [Audio Home Recording Act] and fair use. You have to look at those in order to decide whether the scope of the injunction is correct.

Do you think you'll change your strategy or presentation, given the way things went down on Wednesday?

We're grateful that we're gonna get a chance to spend time presenting our case to the Court of Appeals, and I doubt that we'd do anything different than what we did in front of the District Court.

I got the impression that you had a judge in this case who came down very strongly on one side and was quite unreceptive to the arguments you were making.

I agree with that. We respected the judge's decision and the basis on which she made it, but we didn't agree with it. We didn't agree substantively, and we didn't agree with it procedurally with the respect to the scope of the injunction that was granted. That's what we said to the Court of Appeals, and we asked them to postpone the enforcement of the injunction until we had the chance to make that argument before them, and they happily agreed with us.

In your capacity as an attorney, can you explain the implication of the stay being granted?

All it means is that pending the Circuit Court's hearing our appeal, in that period between now and when they make their decision, we don't have to comply with the injunction that the court gave on Wednesday.

Who presides when you present your appeal?

It's the three judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and I think there's a different panel every month.

However this issue is resolved, it's certainly focused a lot of attention on the music world and caused a lot of debate.

I think the more interest there is in music, the better off we'll all be.

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