The Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against Napster on December 7, 1999. The lawsuit charges Napster with contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade association. The members of the Recording Industry Association of America create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate music recordings produced and sold in the United States.
The members of the Recording Industry Association of America are angered and outraged at Napster for claiming to be building communities of music fans, when in fact they are stealing from artist. They also state that Napster is unfair to the artist and musicians who have invested their time, effort and money to create music. They feel like anyone else they should be paid for their work.
Elton John stated �I am excited about the opportunities presented by the Internet because it allows artists to communicate directly with fans. But the bottom line must always be respect and compensation for creative work. I am against Internet piracy and it is wrong for companies like Napster and others to promote stealing from artists on-line.�
One of Napster�s defenses was the �fair use� defense. The �fair use doctrine� can allow someone to reproduce, distribute, adapt, display, and/or perform a copyrighted work depending upon the nature of the use, the length of the excerpt, how distinctive the original work is and how the use will impact the market for the original work.
Napster also claimed that their copyright protection page clearly stated �It revokes the ability of users to access Napster if they violate copyright law�.
Judge Marilyn hall Patel ruled against Napster. The contributory infringement statue states: �a contributory infringer is one who with knowledge of the infringement activity induces, causes or materially contributes to the infringement conduct of another.� In this case the Recording Industry Association of American successfully demonstrated their contributory copyright infringement claim against Napster.
With respect to Napster�s claim that it was all about creating a community for new and unknown artist, the district court ruled that it was just an after thought by Napster to help with their litigation.
Napster was ordered to stop copy infringement activities on its systems.
