Napster users are sharing almost 60 per cent fewer digital music files since the embattled Internet song-swap service began implementing new filters to block copyrighted material, a company which tracks Web traffic said.
"Napster is successfully filtering many songs from its system," said analyst Mr Matt Bailey of Webnoize. "It is not just the number of files available that has fallen sharply. The number of downloads per user has dropped by half."
Webnoize said that prior to Napster's latest filtering effort Napster users were sharing an average of 172 song files each. With the new filter, the number of songs made available for sharing fell to 71 per user, down 59 per cent.
Napster officials had no immediate comment on the reported drop in file sharing, which took place the day after they enlisted Gracenote Inc., a maker of music recognition services, to help boost file-filtering efforts.
While the filter, implemented in an effort to comply with a federal court injunction ordered March 5, appeared to be having some effect, Webnoize said Napster appeared still to be offering plenty of music by artists identified by the Recording Industry Association of America as under copyright.
These songs, by artists ranging from rap star Eminem to Elvis Presley, could be easily downloaded, Webnoize said. Songs by other artists such as 98 Degrees were available if users added certain characters to a title search.