The single, Music, to be the first from her forthcoming album of
the same name, was due to be released in September or October. Most
of the song can now be accessed by Napster software or on fan web
sites.
The Napster software, created last year by Shawn Fanning, aged
19, allows MP3 users to access a directory of songs stored on the
hard drives of all its members, giving each member near-instant
access to hundreds of thousands of songs, many of them illegally
copied.
Madonna’s record company has threatened legal action against web
sites offering the download. Warner Bros said in a statement: “Any
site that makes available our copyrighted material without our
consent runs the risk of civil and criminal prosecution under
existing federal law and state common law. We expect that the site
owners who have included this material on their site will comply
with our legitimate request that they cease permitting unauthorised
downloads of this song.”
There have been recent actions regarding Napster’s software by
the rock band Metallica and rappers Dr. Dre and Eminem. In May,
Metallica blocked more than 300,000 usernames from the Napster
site.
