Napster down to overhaul filter
Site pulls plug to work on audio fingerprinting system
The music file-sharing company voluntarily pulled the plug on its network late Sunday -- not because of its ongoing trouble in the courts, but to update the databases that support a new filtering system that identifies songs through advanced audio "fingerprinting."
There was no estimate available from the company as to when the service would be turned on again.
Napster steadily has been implementing more sophisticated filters on its network to screen out song files that are traded in violation of music labels' copyrights. Its efforts came in response to a district court injunction, implemented in March.
Hands-on security
Part of the problem, said an insider, is that a complete database of audio fingerprints for the new filtering technology hasn't been compiled. In order to work properly, the filter needs to take prints for all of the 800,000 songs the record industry wants blocked.
The shutdown comes as Napster attempts to transition users onto a new version of its file-sharing software that accommodates the latest filters. Users of older Napster software no longer are allowed to log on to the network.
Napster's filtering efforts have taken their toll on its once-formidable list of music available for trade: A week before the voluntary shutdown, the average number of files shared by any one user had slumped by more than 80% compared with the number before the court injunction, according to data from media research firm Webnoize.
Users who migrated to the new version of Napster's software prior to the shutdown found the number of files available was less -- as was the amount of Napster users logging on, the firm said.
