Napster continues filtering songs, apologizes to users

The record industry should continue to supply controversial Internet song-swap service Napster with the names of copyrighted songs it wants removed from the Web site, U.S. District Court judge Marilyn Hall Patel said Friday. Patel suggested that the recording industry might have misread an earlier federal appeals court opinion by wrongly concluding that it might not need to identify songs under certain circumstances. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the judge said that the Recording Industry Association of America might need to “seek clarification” from the appellate court. Napster released a statement on its Web site apologizing to users for its filtering, which “has unfortunately caused substantial additional ‘overblocking.'” Additional filters had been activated to block not only copyrighted works from major label groups, but also other “authorized” sound recordings, the statement said.