LONDON (Brand Republic) - German media group Bertelsmann has abandoned efforts to persuade rival record labels to join an alliance with Napster, which would have involved them making an investment or dropping their lawsuits against the company.
According to a Financial Times report, Bertelsmann has been forced to change its tactics after it became clear that the record companies were determined to continue with the copyright lawsuit against Napster in an attempt to close it down.
Five months ago, Bertelsmann formed an alliance with Napster to help develop a legitimate online music distribution service. The group had hoped to persuade other record labels to follow suit.
Bertelsmann has now given up negotiating directly with the record labels and is in talks with other media groups, including the record labels’ parent companies, to form broader alliances with Napster. This could involve distributing other media, such as video, over Napster’s network, and the media companies could take a stake in the remodelled business.
Yesterday, a San Francisco court judge criticised Napster’s efforts to comply with an earlier injunction ordering it to block copyrighted music from its service.
Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said she would close the company down if it does not find a more effective method of filtering the offending material, and said a court-appointed expert would review Napster’s efforts.
Napster claimed it has done its best to comply with the court order, and has installed software to filter copyrighted songs from its server. It has so far blocked 2m files, but claims that the recording labels gave it confusing lists of songs.
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