With ruling due today, MP3 fans swamp Napster
Thousands of users of music file-swapping site Napster swarmed the service this weekend, anticipating the possibility that the service will be shut down today. Free downloads of music files might not be possible again. According to reports, 12,000 members were logged on to just one of Napster’s 100-plus computer servers Sunday, sharing more than 2 million music files. In comparison, on a random day picked in July, 7,300 people would log on to a server to share 800,000 music files. Napster has about 50 million users. The 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules today upon last summer’s injunction from a lower court that shut the site down. The appeals court had delayed the injunction, leaving Napster open for business. In December 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster for piracy. Even if the court shuts down Napster, the site plans to begin charging a subscription fee this summer, since it has aligned with Bertelsmann, one of the record companies originally suing it.

American Express jumps into free ISP ring
Kmart may have scrapped its free internet service, but that hasn’t deterred American Express from rolling out free net access itself. American Express Online, which is still in its trial phase, offers unlimited free net access, 24-hour customer service, web-based email and instant messaging from an ad-free American Express portal. A limited number of American Express cardholders were asked to try the service over the past several months. The American Express Online site says that all U.S. American Express cardholders can use the service. American Express has made other excursions onto the web, such as its Blue card, which contains a computer chip for extra security and is aimed at people who shop online. But free internet service has yet to pay off for any company. AltaVista pulled its free net access after its partner in the venture, ISP 1stUp, went out of business, and leading free ISPs Juno Online Services and NetZero have both begun limiting time online and charging fees for heavy users or users who don’t want to see ads.

Webcast of asteroid landing today
The first-ever attempt to land a spacecraft on an asteroid takes place today in cyberspace as well as in outer space. A NASA rocket will attempt to land on Eros, named for the Greek god of love, and the photos it takes as it approaches the asteroid’s surface will be streamed to NASA.gov live, starting at about 2 p.m., at the rate of about two images per minute. The webcast should last about an hour. The landing marks the climax of project NEAR, or Near Earth Asteroid Landing Rendezvous. The spacecraft, named Shoemaker, has been in orbit around the asteroid for almost a year. Eros is 196 million miles from Earth, making it the most distant heavenly body upon which scientists have ever attempted to land a spacecraft. Kidney-shaped Eros is about the size of Manhattan; of the asteroids that are near Earth, it is the second-biggest. The project’s goal is to examine Eros’s mineralogical composition and compare it to that of the Earth, comets and meteorites for clues about the solar system’s origins. Shots of the landing might be dramatic: The spacecraft, not actually designed to land, could very likely crash, albeit at speeds between 2 and 7 mph.

Hobbyists also combat copyright theft online
The music industry isn’t the only trade that fears that the internet is leading to copyright piracy. The Hobby Industry Association has begun lobbying its 4,000 members to fight the unauthorized online distribution of instructions and patterns for crafts such as needlepoint and floral arranging. The association is crafting warnings for arts-and-crafts web sites along the lines of, "Unlimited electronic distribution of this pattern means the artist receives no payment for his or her work." Brick-and-mortar pattern sellers and designers can demonstrate that the internet has hurt them. Pegasus Originals, a South Carolina needlepoint shop, says its sales have declined 40 percent over the past four years. Online poaching of crafts patterns is apparently well established and organized. There are piracy rings based in Korea, Russia and Europe, and it is simple to scan a pattern and distribute it to hundreds of people at no cost.

Prince to launch subscription music site
Pop musician Prince will roll out a web site Wednesday where fans can download new songs and videos and access webcasts. The 42-year-old artist will charge a monthly fee for the NPG Music Club, which is named for his band, New Power Generation. This is perhaps a logical step for a musician whose quarrels with the record industry have been well publicized. In 1993, after clashing with Warner Bros. over ownership of his copyrights and how often he could issue records, the prolific musician changed his name to a strange symbol that had no name and therefore couldn't be spoken; he was typically referred to at that point as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" or "The Artist." As an additional protest about his record label’s clout, he wrote the word "slave" on his face for many public appearances. He changed his name back to Prince last spring when his contract with Warner Bros. expired. Prince, who is said to have hundreds of hours of music recorded but as yet unreleased, has long been an advocate of the internet as a channel for distributing music. In August, he made a pro-Napster statement on his web site.

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