Napster tracking software drives away users - survey
( 2001-06-28 16:58) (7)
New software being offered by online music swapping site Napster to track the trading of song files is drastically cutting into the exchange of those files by users, an online media consulting group said Wednesday.
WebNoize, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported that Napster users are now sharing an average 1.5 songs, compared to February of this year when individual Napster users passed along an average of 220 songs.
Napster's new music exchange software contains digital "fingerprint" technology which compares the digital structure of songs being passed through the system with a database of music that record companies claim is copyrighted. Those songs that are found to be copyrighted are barred from the system, and the user runs the risk of being banished from the Napster network.
Matt Bailey, a WebNoize analyst, said the new software, which is being tested for eventual use in a for-pay Napster system, is "another nail in the coffin of the service consumers originally loved."
The recording industry's major players have been waging a protracted legal battle against the Redwood City, California-based music swapping site, and a federal appeals court panel here last week upheld a ruling that Napster allowed users to engage in massive copyright infringement.
Napster officials have said they'll turn their system into a legal, subscriber-based music distribution network -- complete with the record industry's blessing -- by September.
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