PATEL CHARGED WITH
NAPSTER LAWSUITS

Dr. Dre and Metallica will proceed with lawsuits against Napster before the same judge who ordered the music-sharing service to stop facilitating copyright infringement.

A six-member panel of judges ordered said cases transferred from a Los Angeles federal court to U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel in San Francisco, saying she is already familiar with the issues.

In July, Patel ordered Napster to basically shut down operations. Her decision to issue a preliminary injunction against the company represented an initial victory for the RIAA in its ongoing fight against the online file swapper.

Since that decision, the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed Patel's order until it can rule on Napster's appeal of the preliminary injunction. The appeals court has held a hearing on the matter but did not indicate when it will decide the issue.

In addition, the other three lawsuits against Napster, which include TVT Records, the National Music Publishers' Association and the RIAA, will be consolidated for trail purposes under Patel as well.