Halt of Napster Requested

On Monday, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a brief requesting that the popular music portal, Napster, be prevented from "facilitating or assisting others in, the copying, downloading,
uploading, transmission or distribution of copyrighted musical works." The brief was reinforced by declarations from MP3.com's CEO, Michael Roberston.

According to Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association of America, "If Napster can encourage and facilitate the distribution of pirated sound recordings, then what's to stop it from doing the same to movies, software, books, magazines, newspapers, television, photographs or video games?"

Robertson is equally concerned with Napster's functions. He states that the work of his Web site's artists are being given away through Napster. "Any such distribution would cause potential detriment to both MP3.com and
the artists who upload their music to the Web site."