Napster proposes $1 billion settlement

Just a week after it was dealt a serious blow by a federal appeals court, Napster yesterday offered $1 billion to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit with five of the music industry's recording giants. The pending suit threatens to shut down the free online exchange of music provided by Napster. In the proposed settlement, Napster would pay the five largest record labels -- Sony, Warner, BMG, EMI and Universal -- $150 million annually for the first five years, with $50 million going to independent labels. "We all ought to sit down and settle this case as fast as we can," Napster Chief Executive Officer Hank Barry said. "We're saying this is something consumers really want. Let's do something to keep it going." The offer comes a week after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirmed a lower-court ruling that said Napster aids and abets copyright infringements. The recent legal action has spun Penn students -- and around 50 million other users -- into a frenzy of downloading and song swapping, as many are worried they will soon lose the free service. Regardless of the legal outcome, however, Napster has said it plans to unroll a fee-based service this summer. At Penn, rumors of the end of free downloading prompted students to spend hours on their computers before Napster starts charging fees. "I heard it was going to shut down a week ago," College freshman Brian Coleman said. "It concerns me. I'm going to have to download a bunch of songs really quickly." Coleman, who has already downloaded approximately 900 songs, said he plans to spend at least an hour a day on the site before its access is limited. College senior Josh Jashinski is also disheartened by the possibility that Napster may soon disappear. "I am a little depressed at the news because I have used Napster to burn many CDs," Jashinski said. "I am going to use it as much as I can before it shuts down," added his friend, Wharton senior Nadav Besner. "Because of Napster, I got to hear a lot of music I wouldn't have heard otherwise, so now it just limits the kind of music I am going to hear," Besner said. But Penn officials said that increased traffic on Napster hasn't affected the speed of Penn's online services. Over the past year, schools across the country have banned students from using the music service, due to the strain it placed on their computer networks. Deputy Vice President of Information Systems and Computing Robin Beck has not been concerned with any overload in the network system. "We haven't seen a blip in bandwidth due to that kind of use." Yet not all students are as devastated by the chance that Napster may be going away despite the new prospects of settlement. Engineering sophomore Brian Flounders has amassed over 3,500 songs on his computer. "I never really used Napster because there were always other options that were faster," Flounders said. "Napster made file-sharing mainstream," he added. "It opened up the technology to allow easier access, which other companies will catch on to." "[Internet Relay Chat] has been around forever and it will never be shut down," said Flounders, citing one of many other options available for downloading MP3s off of the Internet. College sophomore Lauren Wiener said she supports the concept of Napster, likening it to advertisements on television that warn viewers not to copy movies or other copyrighted programs. "I think what it is doing is good for the little people, but bad for the big people in the music industry," Wiener said. The Associated Press contributed to this article

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