Emusic Tracks Napster Naughties

Emusic engineers have developed a tracking system that can identify infringing materials on Napster -– something the file-trading company said was impossible.

Digital download retailer Emusic said Napster executives have been disingenuous in their claims that the company couldn't develop a technology to track users on their servers.

So Emusic put two engineers on the job and on Tuesday, less than three weeks after starting, the company said it had created a tracking technology that continually searches the network looking for users who have made available tracks from the retailer.

By tracking the MD5 checksum, which uniquely identifies the original source of a song, Hoffman said that Emusic would be able to track files that were being made available from one individual to other Napster users.

Once infringing users are identified, they would then receive an instant message warning them to remove the materials from the network within 24 hours or be faced with having their account blocked by Napster.

The system would also track the Internet protocol addresses of the infringing users, which would enable Emusic to send a takedown notice directly to the user's ISP if necessary.

"We have a responsibility to our customers and subscribers to protect the exclusive rights that we have," Hoffman said during a conference call. "Emusic has been in discussions with Napster for at least six months to come up with a consumer-friendly solution to this problem, but Napster has been unwilling to cooperate on any level except one."

"The company has been left with one solution which Napster has proposed –- to remove users from their system."

Previously, heavy metal band Metallica and hip-hop rapper Dr. Dre attempted to have infringing users blocked from Napster.

In April, Metallica filed a copyright infringement suit against Napster, followed closely by the public announcement of over 600,000 names of users who had been sharing unauthorized files.

According the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, copyright holders can request that Internet companies refuse access to those people who are making unauthorized materials available for distribution.

The blocked user can then dispute the claims. Once a dispute has been made, the original copyright holder has 10 working days to take legal action. If no action is taken, access to the materials would be automatically reinstated.