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By Heather McLean, 20 February 2002 17:00

NEWS Record label giants out to sue Napster for illegal distribution of copyrighted music online are unwilling to settle with the controversial service because it would open up their catalogues to other smaller distributors. Napster and the big five record labels are back in court today after spending a month attempting to negotiate a mutual agreement over distribution rights for music online. Mark Mulligan, music analyst at Jupiter MMXI Communications, said: "In theory MusicNet [backed by AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EM] and Pressplay [backed by EMI, Sony and Universal] are just a middle-point for music distribution. "However, they look monopolistic to anti-trust watchers because no retail partners, smaller portals or independent distributors have been able to participate, except Napster and that was an exclusive deal," he said. In explaining why no agreement had been reached during the month-long consultation period Mulligan said: "There is always a danger that if an agreement was reached in the quiet period, another net distribution service would come along and use the deal as a precedent to get access to the music." He added: "If a ruling is made on copyright misuse the precedent will not be restricted to one medium, so there are implications for all record labels' monopoly over the control of content by all distributors, on all mediums." The presiding judge, Marilyn Hall Patel, said last month during the ongoing case against Napster that she would take a close look at the big five labels' use of copyright. Pressplay, the online distribution hub backed by Sony, Vivendi Universal, and EMI said the now legal Napster could distribute its tunes on the condition that Napster not deal with any other distribution hub that would give it access to other record labels' music. All parties involved are hopeful that an agreement will be reached soon.