Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Cnet Napster programs to work AROUND Judges Orders

This Cnet "How-To" guide from 4/2/2002 begins, "The Judge's Orders are in"... then goes on to recommend new devices to download to circumvent the will of the court. Cnet offers a new device to download to the end user with VERY specific instructions for using it.

Click on Image to Enlarge. Screen Cap from 4/2/2002




Click on Image to Enlarge. Screen Cap from 4/2/2002



Click on Image to Enlarge. Screen Cap from 4/2/2002



Click on Image to Enlarge. Screen Cap from 12/9/2000



Click on Image to Enlarge. Screen Cap from 12/9/2000




Also of interest is THIS Mp3 "Nugget" screen captured on 6/7/2002 recommending the file sharing service gnutella in terms suggesting that it was less likely to be shut down. Yet Morpheus was shut down (In Large Part by MGM vs Grokster),and utilized this network.

AGAIN, recommendations by Cnet on how to continue with Alternate file sharing devices as suitable substitutions for Napster. I argue that the statement of Cnet staff recommending to "Try this hot, new file-sharing client", Qtraxmax, in the terms of being "very, very difficult to sue or close down", certainly being a choice new alternative for copyright infringing activity.



Cnet MP3 Insider Article describing software solutions to working around a Judge's Orders. Cnet article screen Capped 9/13/2001.



Click the Images to Enlarge Greatly

During the ongoing Napster legal battle, a method of Song Title Filtering was added to the file sharing system to control copyright infringing activity . This allowed Napster to stop a users prevent users sharing copyrighted works. This was a Specific Court Order to Napster.

Section 1201 of the Copyright Act, enacted as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), makes it unlawful to "circumvent" any technology aimed at protecting a copyrighted work. Although, Section 1201 was intended to defeat technologies to circumvent encryption type protection, I argue that it may apply here. A technology WAS applied to protect copyrighted works from continued infringement. Cnet offered ways to circumvent the technologies. (Also Cnet recommended File Name Changing Software to Prevent Music Names from being recognized and blocked.)

The following Screen Cap was originally Created 6/15/2001 The Namster Program may very likely had substantially more downloads over time than shown in this early Fair Use Image!