Napster's New Filter Doesn't Stop the Music

SAN FRANCISCO -- Music file-sharing service Napster implemented a file filter Sunday night to block downloads of copyrighted material, but by Monday afternoon Napster fans had figured out how to sometimes outsmart the system.

The filter was put in place at approximately 10 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, a Napster representative says. Napster attorney David Boies announced the plan to implement filtering software at a hearing in District Court here on Friday.

The filtering software lies between the end user's computer and Napster's servers, and contains a preliminary list of song titles provided by attorneys from the record industry. The music labels contend--and the court concurs--that Napster allows sharing of copyrighted material.

In theory, although a user may have one of the blocked songs on his or her hard drive, others searching for the title cannot see it. However, as Napster has warned, one flaw in the system is that it can filter out only exact file names. Songs with misspelled file names or carrying made-up names won't be blocked and are still subject to sharing.

Name Game Allows Access

Given that Napster's search engine can track down song titles even when a name is slightly misspelled or altered, this leaves users able to access some songs that are supposed to have been blocked. For example, a Napster representative offered the names of three songs that are on the filtering list. Two of those three songs could still be accessed by users Monday afternoon.

Metallica's "Enter Sandman," for example, was easily attainable on Monday without needing to modify the search query. More than 100 users were offering the song on just one of Napster's servers under such titles as "Inner Sandman," "Enter the Sandman," and simply "Sandman."

Another song on the filter list, Billy Joel's "Piano Man," was available on the same server, listed under "Joel, Billy" followed by the title "Piano Man" or "PianoMan." The song was apparently not blocked because Billy Joel's name appears in reverse in the file name.

The third song, Metallica's "The Unforgiven" from the same 1991 album as "Enter Sandman," could not be found even after several attempts on different servers.

Does Napster Matter?

"The filtering engine has to be limited by definition, or else it would block out more songs than intended," says Malcolm Maclachlan, an electronic media analyst with IDC. "I think everybody knew that there would be a cat and mouse game between the users and the filtering service."

A larger question is whether users actually need Napster anymore, given the growing level of awareness around alternative file-swapping services such as Gnutella, OpenNap, and Freenet.

"I don't think [the filtering software] is really that relevant," Maclachlan says. "Thanks to the media coverage, every Napster user knows the name of a half dozen other sites they could try," he adds.