                            Napster 

    In college dorms and homes around the country, music fans have been using their computers to download music for free from the Internet. The songs are converted from CDs into computer files called MP3s, which can be sent over the Internet, and then played, either on a computer or on a portable player similar to a Walkman. The most celebrated program--with 20 million users--is called Napster, and it allows one computer user to pluck music files from another computer, with no loss in quality. 
    "What Napster did was made things so easy that, literally, all we'd have to do is just type in the name of a song, and up come a list of where we could download it from. Just double click, and it would start downloading. It was that simple." 
    But yesterday a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, directing Napster not to facilitate or permit infringement of copyrighted material. That will halt the trading by music fans on the Napster web site, effective at midnight tomorrow. The company--which has been at the center of a major controversy--intends to appeal the order, and is asking for a stay of the injunction. "A full trial is scheduled for later this year." The judge sided with the recording industry, which claims that swapping music files was in direct violation of copyright laws it has fought to strengthen. Hillary Rosen is president of the Recording Industry Association of America. 
