Copyright Infringement case between A&M Records Inc. Vs Napster Inc.

1. Copyright Infringement:
A&M Records v. Napster
BHAUMIK OZA
CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY

2. Some Important Words: -
 infringe: verb - actively break the terms of a law, agreement, etc.
Eg: making an unauthorized copy would infringe copyright.
 plaintiff: noun - a person who brings a case against another in a
court of law
 defendant: noun - an individual, company, or institution sued or
accused in a court of law

3. Plaintiffs
 Companies Involved in the case:
 A&M Records. a subsidiary of Universal Music Group
 Geffen Records. a subsidiary of Universal Music Group
 Interscope Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music
Group
 Sony Music Entertainment
 MCA Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group
 Atlantic Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group
 Island Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group
 Motown Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group

4. Defendant
 Napster, Inc. has designed and operates a
system which permits the transmission and
retention of sound recordings employing
digital technology.
 Napster facilitates the transmission of MP3
files between and among its user through a
process commonly called ‘peer-to-peer’
file sharing
 This service is available free of charge from
Napster’s Internet site.

5. Procedural background
 Plaintiffs alleged copyright infringement by Napster, and filed a
motion for a preliminary injunction in order to stop the exchange of
plaintiffs' songs on the service immediately.
 Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of
California granted the preliminary injunction on Napster.
 Napster appealed to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit.

6. Procedural background
 Preliminary injunctive relief is available to a party who demonstrates the
possibility of irreparable harm.
 A majority of Napster users use the service to download and upload
copyrighted music. And by doing that, it constitutes direct infringement of
plaintiffs' musical compositions, recordings

7. Fair Use
 The Circuit court agreed with the district court's "general analysis of Napster
system uses“.
 Napster was Alleged on 3 Analysis i.e. Sampling, Space-Shifting and
Distribution.
1. Sampling, where users make temporary copies of a work to sample it before
purchase,
2. Space-shifting, where users access a sound recording through the Napster system
that they already own in audio CD format.
3. Permissive distribution of recordings by both new and established artists who have
authorized their music to be disseminated in the Napster system

8. Factors for Abstract Infringement
1. Downloading an MP3 is not transformative under the purpose of
personal use.
2. Repeating and exploitative copying of copyright work even if Napster
didn't benefit from it, could be considered for commercial use.
3. The court also finds the creative works such as songs, was a question of
intended copyright protection.

9. 4. The district court concluded that Napster harms the Companies in ‘at least’
two ways:
 It reduces audio CD sales among college students.
 It ‘raises barriers to plaintiffs’ entry into the market for the digital
downloading of music.
5. The district court relied on evidence plaintiffs submitted to show that
Napster was Infringing the market for their copyrighted musical
compositions and sound recordings.

10. Ninth Circuit Court’s Decision
 The 9th Circuit courts Judgement was against Napster as it was found
that they had the actual knowledge regarding specific infringing
materials .
 They could have controlled such materials or block the access to
such materials but they failed to remove it.
 The Ninth Circuit affirmed this analysis, finding that the plaintiffs were
likely to succeed in proving that Napster did not have a valid fair use
defense.
 Hence, Napster was ordered to Shutdown or Make changes to
differentiate between the Materials and avoid Infringement of
copyright materials

11. “
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Thank You