The hearing before US District Judge Marilyn Patel aimed to determine whether Napster was complying with an injunction of 5th March that ordered the company to put in place filters to block the swapping of songs on its service that featured in lists supplied by record companies. While Napster claims to have blocked over 1.7 million files, users have succeeded in renaming songs and circumventing the filters.
Judge Patel told Napster, “You created this monster, you figure it out.” Before making any decision, she has appointed an independent technical expert, Dr. A.J. Nichols, who will advise Judge Patel on what Napster is technically capable of doing. She is also considering a claim by over 26,000 publishers wanting class action status for a claim against Napster for copyright infringement.