Legitimate Uses of Napster

More specifically, Napster points to the following as evidence of the frequency with which its system is used for legitimate purposes:

• "As of July 3, 2000, more than 17,000 artists had expressly authorized Napter users to share their music"
• "Hundreds of artists allow the digital taping of their live performances and the trading of these recordings among their fans"
• "Napster permits the transfer of secure file formats, subject to the creators' conditions governing access to the file, thereby facilitating 'viral distribution' which Plaintiffs themselves recognize as maximizing product penetration at little cost."

Napster also argues that its system is sometimes used for "space shifting" ("the practice of copying a musical recording to which the user already has access into another format or 'space' for the user's convenience") and for "sampling" ("to make temporary copies of a work to sample before buying"). Both of these activities, it claims, should be deemed "fair uses" for much the same reason that the Supreme Court in the Sony case concluded that the use of a VCR for the purpose of "time shifting" should be deemed a "fair use."