Fans of the song sharing service Napster logged on by the tens of thousands for a last-minute grab at music they fear a US federal court may knock offline.
Nearly 10,000 users logged on yesterday to just one of Napster's more than 100 computer servers sharing nearly two million free MP3 song files, according to the website.
The US Circuit Court of Appeals is set to rule tomorrow on a lower court's injunction against the Redwood-based company. The recording industry sued Napster in December 1999 for copyright infringement.
The appeals court stayed the injunction in July, allowing Napster to stay online. If the court reinstates the injunction, Napster could be crippled.
UCLA student Mr James Papasin, 23, the founder of Napster, said he was not panicking. Mr Papasin said if Napster had to shut down he could easily find other ways to get free music by massaging the right Internet search engines.
"You can just search for whatever music you want and it directs you to links where you can download the music from people's private servers," Papsin said about his Napster alternative. "It's pretty impossible to police all those sites."
Despite allegations of illegal trading via the service, Napster's base of registered users has exploded and challenged major record labels to consider different methods of reaching consumers online.
Napster has remained confident that its service will withstand the legal test, saying on its website over the weekend: "We have great confidence in our legal position."
AP