The music file-swapping service announced the filtering plans for specific song titles at a court hearing Friday, where attorneys for the company and record labels presented arguments regarding how to police alleged copyright violations on the service.
A ruling is not immediately expected. But Napster said it has created a way to screen individual file names that would likely go into effect this weekend. Potentially millions of files will be blocked at that time, Napster attorney David Boies said.
"We have had a group of people working night and day on a process to block access to these files," Boies said. "What we are doing is inserting a step between the uploading and the viewing of the index...that will block out specific file names."
Included in this block will be approximately 1 million files, representing some 5,600 songs submitted to Napster by the major record labels, heavy metal band Metallica, hip-hop heavyweight Dr. Dre, music publishers and others.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel is deciding how to modify an order she first issued last July in San Francisco federal court, when she said that Napster must block all trades of works copyrighted by the major music labels. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said last month that ruling went too far and that the record companies instead had to identify specific works to be blocked.
Just what that seemingly simple mandate meant prompted wildly divergent arguments in court Friday, however, and it was unclear whether Napster's decision to begin filtering song titles would satisfy Patel.
As it tries to build bridges with copyright holders, Napster also runs the risk of alienating its core membership, which may decide to seek free music elsewhere. There is no lack of would-be alternatives eager to snap up Napster's 64 million registered users.
