March 5, 2001--
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) _ Copyright music flowed freely on the Napster tune-swapping service Sunday night as users waited to see if the company would fulfill a promise to block pirated songs sometime over the weekend using a new screening system.
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All the top 10 songs listed on the Billboard Hot 100 list were available on the company's servers, including the No. 1 "Stutter" by Joe featuring Mystikal. Songs by longtime Napster foe Metallica also showed up in searches.
The company will not comment on the screening plan until it begins, spokeswoman Karen DeMarco said Sunday. She would not say when that would be.
With the service facing imminent change, usage was soaring. More than 11,100 people shared a total of 2.2 million files Sunday afternoon on just one of dozens of servers used by Napster.
"I am kind of watching it and trying to get my last efforts in _ quickly," said Thor Nelson, a user from St. Paul, Minn.
During a federal court hearing Friday, Napster attorney David Boies said the service would deploy the screening system over the weekend. He did not provide a specific time.
On its Web site, Napster said the process of screening out file names, song titles and artists won't be easy.
"It has involved a significant investment of time and resources," a statement said. "However, we believe it is superior to shutting the service down and disbanding the community during the transition period to the new membership-based service."
The software to be installed on Napster's servers will block access to 1 million music files, Boies said. Because it will block variations on each song's title and artist's name, the actual number of tunes screened out will be smaller. Officials refused to say how many distinct songs would be filtered.
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(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
