March 7, 2001 – EMusic.com Inc., the Internet's leading seller of downloadable music, today announced that it has filed a complaint against Napster Inc. for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and unfair competition. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

"For over six months, Napster Inc. has flatly rejected our requests to filter out and effectively block EMusic tracks from being traded on their system without our permission," said Gene Hoffman, EMusic president and CEO. "Napster has stated clearly to us and to the courts that they believed such a system was technically impossible.

"In light of this position, Napster's ability to quickly implement such a filtering system over this past weekend shows the company's true motive -- to unfairly build a business upon the copyrighted works of others.

"We welcome the injunction that the court has issued against Napster. It is a major step towards leveling the playing field for legitimate downloadable music companies," Hoffman said.

EMusic represents thousands of artists and hundreds of independent labels by legitimately licensing their digital music copyrights and selling this music to consumers conveniently and inexpensively in the downloadable MP3 format. The company offers a legitimate alternative to Napster through EMusic Unlimited, a first-of-its-kind music subscription service that offers music fans with unlimited to access to more than 160,000 high-quality MP3s for as little as $9.99 per month.

EMusic Asks Napster to Reinstate Blocked Users

EMusic also announced today that it has requested that Napster Inc. reinstate any Napster users that had their accounts terminated for trading EMusic songs. In November 2000, at Napster's insistence, EMusic started notifying Napster of users that were distributing EMusic tracks without permission. At the time, Napster suggested that EMusic's only recourse was to have these users banned completely from the system.

"Today's actions should make it clear that EMusic bears no malice towards Napster's users," Hoffman said. "We understand and support their passion for downloadable MP3 music."