NON-BREAKING NAPSTER NEWS: LET'S DEAL WITH IT LATER

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has granted requests from both Napster reps and the labels filing suit against the swapco to put the case on hold until Feb. 17. Plaintiffs—with the exception of litigating labels Capitol and Virgin—and defendant both asked for more time.

OK, that's about all the actual news you're gonna find in this story. You're aware that this case—which most observers believe is slouching, at last, to the settlement phase—has dragged on since the heyday of Maurice Chevalier.

You also already know that Napster's been announcing the imminent launch of its Bertelsmann-backed, "legit" service since, oh, the Harding administration, but that it did actually begin beta-testing said service recently (see story, 1/10).

You likely understand as well that the black market in swapped media files is now even bigger than it was in Napster's glory days. For example, P2P upstart KaZaA (the assets of which were recently sold to Australian company Sharman Networks Ltd.) has seen its desktop file-sharing application downloaded more than 33 million times.

We at hitsdailydouble.com pledge to keep you updated on this glacially breaking non-story.