A federal judge has issued an injunction ordering the song-swap service Napster to eliminate all copyright materials in its system, a recording industry group said today.
A spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said lawyers for the trade group had received the long-awaited injunction late on Monday night.
The injunction goes into effect immediately and requires the big music companies who are suing Napster for copyright infringement to provide lists of the material they wish removed from the system.
"We are gratified the District Court acted so promptly in issuing its injunction requiring Napster to remove infringing works from its system," said Hilary Rosen, president of the RIAA.
Napster said it had no comment at this time.
The world's biggest record labels - including Vivendi Universal's Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI Group Plc and Bertelsmann AG BMG first sued Napster for copyright infringement in December 1999.