Net closes on Roy Orbison fans

Roy Orbison's estate is fighting copyright offenders

Fans of the late Roy Orbison are being blocked from downloading his hits off the music swapping website Napster.

Copyright.net has flooded Napster with e-mails citing more than one million copyright violations by users.

The e-mails were sent on behalf of Roy Orbison Music Co. and Barbara Orbison Music, attempting to enforce the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The company has asked for Napster to block users who have Orbison's hits available for downloading from their hard drives.

Writing on the official Orbison website Mrs Orbison said: "As a copyright owner, I'm very happy that there is a technology that exists which can identify infringements.

Napster founder Shawn Fanning fighting for his company

"I'm looking forward to a time when digital distribution can be handled in a proper way."

Copyright.net said Napster had co-operated with requests to block artists in the past.

Orbison died at the age of 52 in 1988 and was considered a pioneer of country and pop-based rock and roll.

Since the 60s he has released numerous chart hits including Oh, Pretty Woman and Crying.

Back to court

Napster is preparing for the next stage in its fight to continue operating as it goes back to court on Friday.

The American appeal court directed a lower court to redraft an injunction to prevent Napster using copyrighted songs.

This would led to 70% of the music files being removed from the site, effectively closing it down.

The company has petitioned the appeals court to review its earlier hearing, requesting a full hearing with the 25 US Court of Appeals judges present.

Napster would have to persuade at least half of the judges that the case warrants review.