SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has given the record labels suing Napster until Thursday to produce documents proving they own the copyrights to 213 songs that once traded for free over the song-swapping service.<br>
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U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered the labels to provide certificates of copyright registration, or applications for such proof, for top-selling artists such as the Beatles and Elvis Presley.<br>
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A special master, Neil Boorstyn, was appointed by Patel to examine the labels' documents. He will file a report to the court detailing whether the labels have sufficiently established copyright ownership rights.<br>
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It's a last grasp to limit monetary damages in a case that has slowly gone against Napster since the service went offline in July.<br>
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Napster is poised to return as a subscription music download service, but an official launch date has not been announced. It is in a limited beta testing mode.<br>
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Patel recently opened the door to legal discovery on Napster's claims that the labels misused their copyrights to dominate the growing online music distribution industry.<br>
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Napster remains convinced they've made a dent in the armor of the recording industry by convincing a judge to force the labels to turn over copyright ownership documents.<br>
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"It's rarely happened that the labels have been put through their paces in this way," said Jonathan Schwartz, Napster's general counsel.<br>
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Cary Sherman, general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America, has said the labels stand ready to refute Napster's claims that they've worked in collusion to dominate the digital distribution market.<br>
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The case is A&M Records v. Napster, No. C99-5183 <br>
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