EMUSIC FILES COMPLAINT
AGAINST NAPSTER
Digital music seller EMusic filed suit against the netco today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California today. Napster's record in the San Francisco court is 0-2.
In the suit, EMusic says Napster originally denied its ability to create a filtering system for its users in order protect the copyrights of EMusic songs. EMusic President/CEO Gene Hoffman said, "Napster has flatly rejected our requests to filter out and effectively block EMusic tracks from being traded on their system without our permission," and that Napster said such a system was "technically impossible." However, with pressures of a major legal judgment looming, the file-swapping portal implemented a filtering system this past weekend. Hoffman has since sent Instant Messages to Sean Fanning reading, "Liar, liar, pants on fire."
Additionally, Hoffman and EMusic welcome the court's recent injunction against Napster, in hopes that it will "level the playing field for legitimate downloadable music companies." Though the field seems to
Saying they don't hate they playa, they hate the game, EMusic has also requested that Napster reinstate users who were banned last November for trading EMusic songs on the swappery. At the time, Napster claimed terminating accounts was the company's only option for protecting songs from unauthorized swapping.
