NAPSTER PREPS SURVIVAL BRIEF

Lawyers for Napster this week put the finishing touches on a brief due Friday (8/18), marking the next step in its precedent-setting court battle over copyright protection that, if the file-swapping company loses, could very well put them out of business.

"These are important issues at stake," Napster lawyer David Boies told Reuters news service. "This case will have an important effect not only on the freedom to share music but also on how people will be able to use the Internet to share information."

The RIAA's suit against Napster is on the fast track since a federal appeals court in July granted Napster a reprieve, staying a judge's injunction order against the service.

While Napster contends that file sharing for non-commercial use is fair and legal, the music and film industries have mounted a crusade against such technologies, claiming they promote piracy. In granting the reprieve, the appeals court said Napster had presented issues for legal review.

"One of the reasons that you have appellate courts is to guard against the chance that a district court makes an inadvertent error of law or misreads the facts," Boies said. "One of the problems that may have existed on the district court level was… they declined to grant our request for an evidentiary hearing. We may not have done as good a job as we would have been able to in explaining the facts and the technology."

A legal insider reminded Boies that hindsight is 20/20.