ISPs sued over Napster-like site access

A group of ISPs, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Sprint and WorldCom, are being sued by the major record labels for allowing access to a Napster-like website.

The copyright infringement suit was filed in Manhattan federal court by music industry giants BMG, Sony, Universal and Warner Brothers, and demands that the ISPs block access to Listen4ever.com.

The record companies allege that the site allows web users to download music from a central location containing thousands of files, enabling them to make illegal copies, the BBC reports this morning.

The lawsuit says that Listen4ever.com is "even more egregious" than Napster.

The companies taking the legal action claim that tracks by Christina Aguilera, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bruce Springsteen have been unlawfully distributed through the site.

They also say that some tracks have been distributed through the service before their official release, such as Mary J Blige's album Dance For Me.

The site's domain name was registered in January 2002 by someone in Tianjin, near the Chinese capital, Beijing, according to the BBC.

An AT&T spokeswoman told the New York Times the company had never been asked to block access to a foreign site before.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), internet piracy of music has shaved five per cent from music sales in both 2001 and 2000. The Yankee Group predicts 7.44 billion unlicensed audio files will be swapped in 2005, up from 5.16 billion among consumers in 2001.