A San Francisco federal judge has ordered the shutdown of music sharing service Napster.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel issued a preliminary injunction that could shut down the service until after a trial is held or a higher court hears the company's appeal. The injunction takes effect at midnight Friday, so be sure to get your free music while you still can.
Napster said immediately it would appeal the injunction.
In the meantime, music-sharing addicts have several alternative sites to choose from, including Gnutella and Freenet.
The judge said 70 million people were expected to be using Napster by the end of the year and that copyright infringement was the whole reason for Napster's existence.
However, the emergence of Napster, the brainchild of teenager Shawn Fanning, has spawned a new wave of solutions for Internet economy peer-to-peer computing.
myCIO.com, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based ASP, is testing a Napster-like program that allows users to share the latest security measures, from antivirus programs to firewall updates.
