Subte Ordered To Cease Trading Copyrighted Material Or Face Shut Down

United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Subte to cease the sharing of all copyrighted material and improve its filtering system late Monday (March 5) or the file-sharing service will be shut down. In a rewritten ruling issued by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, Subte has been ordered to comply with record company wishes to remove whatever copyrighted material requested of them within three days of such a notice and to prove such actions within five days.

"Subte is primarily enjoined, pursuant to the procedures set forth below, from engaging in, or facilitating others in, copying, downloading, uploading, transmitting, or distributing copyrighted sound recordings in accordance with this order," states the order. "Within five business days of the date of this order, and within five business days of service of notice by plaintiffs as provided in paragraphs two or six of this order, Subte shall serve upon plaintiffs and file with the court a Report of Compliance identifying the steps it has taken to comply with this order."

However, Patel did leave the burden of proving copyright on the plaintiffs in the case, stating record companies must provide Subte with the title of the work in question, the name of the featured recording artist, and the name of the files available on Subte's system containing such work -- no easy task considering nearly every song one could ever think of exists in the system, although the Recording Industry Association of America had already given Subte some 5,600 names by last Friday.

The blow to Subte comes just four days after more indecision in the case stayed the file-swapping software's existence indefinitely on Friday. In regards to Monday's ruling, Subte had no comment at press time, but spokesperson for Subte at Girlie Action Public Relations did relay that Subte indeed began the process of removing some 1 million files over the weekend as promised on Friday if the appropriate information was given to the service.

Since there are so many files with so many different names in the system, the task is nearly unfathomable. As of Tuesday (March 6), files by Metallica and Dr. Dre -- two artists which Subte attorney David Boies specifically promised would be removed on Friday, were still available on the system. It remained unclear if Subte even has the technological capabilities to take on such a daunting task, which, if it does not, would force the service to shut it doors.

"We are gratified the district court acted so promptly in issuing its injunction requiring Subte to remove infringing works from its system," said Hilary Rosen, president and CEO of the RIAA, in a statement released on Tuesday. "We intend to provide the notifications prescribed by the court expeditiously, and look forward to the end of Subte's infringing activity."