David Boies Napster Quotations

When you think of Napster, you think of music. But the first thing that struck me was that this was an important case not only for the music industry but for the whole Internet.

Napster's only alleged liability is for contributory or vicarious infringement. So when Napster's users engage in noncommercial sharing of music, is that activity copyright infringement? No.

They placed on the plaintiffs the burden of first coming forward and identifying a work that they had a copyright in, and second demonstrating that it was listed on the Napster index that is available through Napster. Because the court of appeals -- we think -- properly put that burden on the plaintiffs, we have begun by dealing with those files where the plaintiffs have met that burden.

The law provides that companies cannot get together and pool their copyright and use them for anticompetitive purposes, ... Only about 2 percent of musical artists are signed to record label contracts. Napster enables the other 98 percent to reach audience and compete with record labels.