"...Napster announced Friday it had taken a major step toward developing a member-based business model it hopes will turn into a strategy for survival. Just days after a federal appeals court ordered Napster to stop its millions of users from trading copyrighted material -- a decision many said could shut the company down -- Napster Interim Chief Executive Hank Barry offered a plan he hoped would address the concerns of the recording industry.

According to Barry, Napster and Digital World Services, a unit of Germany media giant Bertelsmann AG, have developed a membership-based business model with technology that enables digital music files to be transferred from computer user to computer user -- so-called peer-to-peer sharing -- but with new restrictions, such as limiting the ability to copy files onto a CD.

"Today's announcement underscores one key fact: the real questions about Napster's future are economic, not technical or legal. This solution is further evidence of the seriousness of our effort to reach an agreement with the record companies that will keep Napster running, reliable, and enjoyable" Barry said in a statement..." NULL