Universal gives Napster a second look

 

Gallery

Posted on 6 Mar 2001 at 17:37

Universal has suggested it might be willing to talk to Napster on the same day Napster began rolling out its filtering system to catch exchanges of copyright material.

The French Vivendi-owned music giant had previously made noises about subscription-based Net-access to its catalogue. At a conference in London, chairman jean-Marie Messier, said that Universal would start licencing music to subscription services being developed by French ISP Wanadoo, Microsoft Network and Napster.

The catalogue would be accessible through Duet, a joint venture with Sony, and would be made available to any subscription service that respected copyright and was "reasonably secure".

With the record companies back in the driving seat, it seems anything's possible, even a complete turnaround of policy towards Napster.

Author: Matt Whipp