Record labels pressure Napster

Napster file-sharing service is still up and running

The recording industry is calling on the online file-swapping service Napster to block access to a list of 135,000 copyrighted songs.

The Recording Industry Association of America was due to send the list to Napster electronically on Friday night.

You will still be able to share music that we haven't been asked to block

Napster statement

Napster has three working days to block access to the songs, under the terms of an injunction issued earlier this week by a US judge.

But late on Friday, a Napster spokeswoman said the company had not yet received the list of songs from the RIAA.

The record companies are seeking to shut Napster down, accusing it of facilitating copyright infringement.

The list, compiled from music owned by the big five record labels, arranges the songs by artist name, song title and album name. It also includes the names under which the songs are stored.

Staying alive

Napster has said it has already received some notices about copyrighted music but is determined to stay alive.

"You will still be able to share music that we haven't been asked to block," it said in a statement. "The Napster file-sharing service is and will continue to be up and running."

It is not clear how many files have already been blocked, but a wide range of files still remain available.

Napster, set up in 1999, makes it easy for people to locate and trade songs stored as computer files in the MP3 format, which compresses digital recordings without much sacrifice of quality.

Napster does not store music files on its servers.

Instead, the servers contain the names of songs and where to find the music among its users' hard drives.

But the five largest record labels - Sony, Warner, BMG, EMI and Universal - say Napster enables over 60 million fans to swap songs for free, thus robbing them of billions in profits.