Within hours, music-swapping company Napster must prove to a US court, record labels and the world that it is officially blocking songs from being traded through it service.
But as cataclysmic deadlines go, it will likely be an unimpressive one. Record companies have provided information on only a limited number of songs that qualify under the court's new rules. At the same time, a host of filter-evading tactics has emerged that has kept many of those songs that are being screened available in some fashion.
Late on Friday, the record industry sent a list of 135,000 individual songs to Napster to block, ratcheting up the systems' filters several more notches.
But the efforts to enforce the injunction will likely continue to be controversial, analysts say.
"I think (the existing filter) is the worst of both worlds," Jupiter Research analyst Aram Sinnreich said. "It's just annoying enough to drive some consumers away, but not effective enough to satisfy rights holders."
Looking for common ground
At this point in the saga, Napster is doing its best to extend a large enough olive branch to the record companies so that it can stay alive at least through July, when a secure subscription service is scheduled to launch in conjunction with Bertelsmann and a few independent labels.
Both sides declined comment as to what they would be discussing in the mediation talks scheduled for Friday. Napster had previously offered the industry a guaranteed US$1 billion over the next five years in return for licenses to music for the subscription service and a temporary legal "cease fire."
None of the major labels bit into the offer, with some executives calling it more of a publicity stunt than a genuine proposal.
Some of those same executives recently have indicated that they would be willing to license their music to a secure, law-abiding Napster, however. AOL Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald Levin told the BBC last week that his company would sign up with Napster if there was a copyright-protected system. Vivendi Universal CEO Jean-Marie Messier told the Financial Times much the same thing.
Few analysts take these as serious signs of a warming relationship, however.
"In my opinion that's just spin," Sinnreich said. "There are plenty of companies offering secured download services today. I'll believe it when I see (the record companies) license their whole catalog to one of these companies."
