By the end of the week, the plan was getting the reception of pork kielbasa at a Jewish wedding. Record execs derided the proposal, arguing that $1 billion was nothing to a $40 billion-a-year industry, which will need to recoup much more revenue if CD sales are undercut by music downloads. Sony and Vivendi, which own two major labels that are plaintiffs in the case, said they would launch a rival service, code-named Duet, by the summer. Duet will charge users for downloads, but most likely scrap Napster’s ‘peer-to-peer’ architecture for one based on central servers, which would be easier to police for copyright violations. “I don’t believe it is right to give the advantage to pirates,” Vivendi chairman Jean-Marie Messier told a French newspaper. Meanwhile a judge will hold a hearing later this week on the final wording of the injunction against the free Napster.
