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RIAA SAYS NAPSTER
HAS NO DEFENSE

Trade Org Ready To Shoot Holes In Napster's Claim They're Not Infringing Copyrights
Hey file-sharers...not so fast.

The RIAA has revealed its counter-strategy to Napster's defense that its users are not infringing copyrights in a brief submitted to U.S. District Court in San Francisco late today.

According to a Reuters report, the trade organization will argue that Napster's contention, forged by expert attorney David Boies, has no basis in law.

Boies, who was the lead attorney for the Justice Department's successful anti-trust case against Microsoft, had argued that the Sony vs. Universal case on the Betamax, the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act which cleared home taping for personal use and the fact Napster functions like an Internet portal meant that file-sharing does not constitute copyright infringement.

"We plan to explain to the court that the law is clearly not as they claim it to be," said RIAA attorney Steve Fabrizio, who filed the brief.

The RIAA first sued Napster for copyright infringement in December and is now seeking a preliminary injunction against the file-sharing company, which allows fans to swap songs by trading MP3 files.

"The AHRA has no applicability to the Napster service and doesn't apply to general purpose computers," argued Fabrizio. "But it sure is cool for downloading Grateful Dead songs.

"All of the copying and distributing being done by Napster users is on general purpose computers. Napster turns each of its users into public servers making the files available worldwide. That's not personal use, that's worldwide publishing. Now excuse me while I tape 'Sex And The City' on my VCR."

A hearing on the case is set for July 26.

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