Napster throws out the Pig

By Staff Writers
00:00 Jan 1, 1900
Tags: Napster | throws | out | the | Pig

Last week you might have read about Aimster's Pig Encoder, a simple application for renaming MP3s and other files in Pig Latin and thus enabling user to continue to swap copyrighted and barred material via Napster . Nearly exactly one week after Pig Encoder's release, Napster has asked for Aimster to cease and desist distributing the software, and Aimster has complied.

It's an interesting legal question, because Pig Encoder does all its work on the client-side, only altering files on a user's PC. Nonetheless, Aimster reports that a number of people have found the software questionable. The speed of Aimster's compliance suggests two things - Napster may have threatened to take the proceedings into court if Aimster insisted on keeping Pig Encoder available, and that Aimster isn't quite as committed to free music swapping as it said last week.

Napster has also been struggling to comply with the injunction against trading copyrighted material, and is asking for a court appointed technical expert to oversee the process. So far Napster has managed to block 26,000 of the 135,000 songs named by the RIAA. Of course, due to the numerous ways a song can be named, Napster is actually blocking 115,000 files, and is claiming that others are proving difficult to block due to poor listings from the RIAA.

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Issue: 137 | June, 2012

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