It is still possible for the RIAA to appeal this latest decision to the full 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court. The full hearing is expected to take place in September, although a formal date has not yet been fixed.
Hilary Rosen, President of the RIAA said in a statement after the decision of the appeals court: “We remain confident that the Court will ultimately affirm once it has had an opportunity to review the facts and the law... It is frustrating, of course, that the tens of millions of daily infringements occurring on Napster will be able to continue, at least temporarily.”
When the original ruling was made on Wednesday and it appeared that Napster’s service would be shut down, the mass of publicity meant that millions of existing and new Napster users tried to download as much material as possible, thereby worsening the problem for the RIAA’s members who comprise the biggest record labels in the world.
Observers have warned that in pushing for the closure of Napster, the RIAA could be shooting itself in the foot. Alternative services FreeNet and Gnutella enjoyed a massive surge in activity since Wednesday’s ruling. These systems, which allow users to swap any type of file (not just MP3 files), do not have centralised servers and so cannot be shut down, either by their original authors or by the courts. Accordingly, many believe that the RIAA might do better from working with and trying to regulate Napster, which already has a database of over 20 million users.
The Napster.com web site is urging users to e-mail the heads of the major record companies to ask them not to "kill" Napster. It is also running a “buy-cott” by asking users to “support the artists who support Napster by going out and buying their CDs. Be sure to let the record store know you came from Napster.” It lists the supporting artists, including Radiohead, Ben Folds Five and Marianne Faithfull.