Online song-swap service Napster has asked a full federal appeals court to review a three-judge decision that could shut it down, saying that an injunction against the company was too broad and violated its rights to free speech.
A Napster spokeswoman said the company filed the request for the rehearing last night with the full US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.
The request comes after a three-judge panel from the appeals court last week ruled that Napster could be held liable for copyright infringement and that an injunction, that would essentially shut down Napster, was not only warranted but required.
In its ruling, a major victory for the recording industry, the three-judge panel ordered a lower court to modify the injunction requiring the record labels to identify which of their copyrights were infringed on Napster.
Napster began the week on a conciliatory note, offering major record labels a $1 billion, five-year deal if they would allow Napster users to swap copyrighted songs. The industry was cool to the proposal and Napster moved on a second legal front.
In its brief filed with Friday, Napster argued that the decision by the three-judge panel would undercut legal protections that cover Internet Service Providers and "would obstruct even indisputably lawful uses of Napster's technology by its over 50 million users."