Judge threatens to close Napster

Napster says it is trying to comply with the order

A judge in the United States has attacked the efforts of the Napster internet music-swapping service to comply with her order to stop providing copyrighted music.

At a hearing in San Francisco, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel threatened to order the immediate closure of Napster if it did not find a more effective filtering system.

You created this monster, you figure it out

Judge Patel

Napster provides a service used by millions of people around the world, who - until Judge Patel's order - were able to download free copies of almost any music they wanted from the libraries of other music lovers using the system.

Napster told the judge it was doing its best to comply with her order, and had already blocked almost two million copyrighted tracks being offered on its server.

Napster is urging its users to unite behind the embattled group

The judge stopped short of closing Napster and said a court-appointed expert would review the claims.

"You created this monster, you figure it out," she told Napster's operators.

An association representing record companies in the US accused Napster of flouting Judge Patel's 5 March ruling that the site was letting its users engage in wholesale copyright infringement.

The site said it has done everything it can to comply, installing filtering software to block out restricted songs.

And it argues that record companies have given it confusing lists of songs.

The record industry has been battling against Napster for months, fearing that the rapidly growing popularity of the system will cut the number of CDs sold, and thus their profits.