Press Release

Music Publishers Hail Court Decision On Napster.
The United States District Court for Northern California issued a ruling late yesterday ordering Internet upstart Napster to stop facilitating the downloading of copyrighted music on the Internet without the permission of the copyright owner. The Court found that the plaintiffs - songwriters and music publishers suing together with major record labels - had made a "strong" showing of likelihood of success on their copyright infringement claims and accordingly issued a preliminary injunction against Napster pending trial.

Edward P. Murphy, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc., said, "The Court's decision confirms the rights of songwriters and music publishers to be compensated for their contribution to our musical heritage. As the Supreme Court has stated so forcefully in the past, copyright protection is the very engine of free expression. Judge Patel's ruling is directly in line with that principle." Murphy added that, "The Court's ruling also calls into question the parasitic business model that Napster pursued to build a business on the back of copyrighted music without the permission of the copyright owner. We hope that this will provide a lesson for Napster copy-cats and other businesses that are pursuing or contemplating pursuing similar business plans. The unauthorized use of copyrighted music is not only illegal - it is wrong."

The songwriter/publisher action was brought by legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and music publisher Frank Music, who seek to pursue their claims on behalf of a class of persons owning or controlling copyrights in musical compositions. The songwriter/publisher plaintiffs are supported by the National Music Publishers' Association and represented by Carey Ramos, Aidan Synnott and Michael Keats of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

The National Music Publishers' Association, Inc., founded in 1917, works to protect and advance the interests of the music publishing industry. With over 700 members, NMPA represents the most important and influential music publishing firms throughout the United States. The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., the licensing subsidiary of NMPA, provides an information source, clearing house and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights, and represents more than 23,000 music publisher principals and more than 150,000 songwriters.