The major record companies may have won a major courtroom battle against Napster, but the technological war was just beginning on Wednesday as the labels compiled the names of millions of songs that the song swapping service must remove under a court order. Napster needs to find a way to block copyrighted songs from their servers:
Napster is trying to comply with the order by screening the file names that pass through its computers in an effort to block the exchange of infringed copyrights. Napster tried out the screening on Sunday but many users managed to skirt the mechanism. |
But experts said there were are other ways that Napster can comply with the injunction. Experts said Napster could use ''digital hallmarks'' or ``fingerprints,'' which could be placed on music files to place limits on usage.
A company called Cantametrix, for instance, has introduced a system that fingerprints songs by scanning musical characteristics of a song. Max Wells, Cantametrix Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, said the software can identify individual songs recorded at different times by the same artist.
Source: ZDnet.com
