Jury Pool Survey - Napster's Chances Good

Music file-swapper Napster would have a good chance before
a jury hearing the lawsuit brought by the recording industry, according to
a
survey of the potential jury pool released today.

A surprisingly high 41.5 percent of 1,000 men and women over 18
years of age believe that taking copyrighted music off the Internet should
be
free if it's for personal use, according to a National Law Journal survey
of
the done by DecisionQuest. It's not a majority, the journal and pollsters
said,
but it's a big enough chunk of the potential juror population to make
civil suit
litigators, record company CEOs and recording artists nervous.

"These data should be music to Napster's ears," said DecisionQuest
vice president David Davis in a statement. "It is very difficult to win a
case by attempting to change jurors' preexisting attitudes. Add to this
that judge's instructions are often ignored, and we have a scenario
where the barrier to persuading a unanimous jury to find against an
alleged Internet 'pirate' may be a note that is too high to reach."

Napster was sued by a number of record companies and music publishers
represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and
the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The groups allege that
Napster is contributing to copyright infringement and should be shut down.
A federal judge's decision to close Napster while the case progresses is
now being heard by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

The study found that while nearly 42 percent of those asked
think taking copyrighted music off the Internet should be free
if it's for personal use, just 19 percent believe it should be free for
commercial use as well.

"Pirates" received a much more favorable rating than hackers,
the study found, with 77 percent saying that hackers who access
other people's networks or computers should be prosecuted as
criminals.

Nearly half said they would be willing to ignore a judge's
instruction on the law in order to "do the right thing"
in a case, the study found, which means jurors could show
leniency toward copyright violators no matter what a judge
says.

"If I were a lawyer representing a company whose copyright had
been infringed, I'd be very worried after reading these results,"
said Patrick Oster, editor-in-chief of The National Law Journal.
"I would have to rethink my chances of getting sizable damages,
and seriously consider settlement."

Of the sample, 54 percent have been called for jury duty. Of those,
39 percent have served on a jury.