Napster must stop allowing the millions of music fans who use its free Internet-based service to share copyrighted material, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The three-judge panel allowed Napster to remain in business but told a lower court judge to rewrite her injunction that ordered Napster to shut down pending a trial for a lawsuit filed by the recording industry. If rewritten, the judge could order Napster to be shut down

Napster made its first appearance in June 1999 with founder Shawn Fanning. Since the birth of Napster, the site has grown to about 50 million registered users and 1.3 million can use the service at the same time.

Minutes after the injunction, thousands of Napster users still were trading music files on just one of the company’s more than 100 servers.

The court did not specify what kinds of sanctions Napster might face. However, Napster said in an announcement that it would appeal the “disappointing” ruling.

Major record labels hoped Monday’s ruling would force millions of computer users to pay for the free online music-swapping service. Had Napster won, the ruling could have given new life to other business ventures that have been waiting for guidance on whether a “personal use” exception to copyright law allows or prohibits trading songs over the Internet.

Pay to play?

One possible result of Napster’s legal troubles is an altered version of the software with subscription fees. On Jan. 29, before the latest ruling, Napster announced that the site would begin charging its customers for downloading MP3s. However, when this charge would start still is unknown.

Freshman undecided major Lea Hartman said if she had a computer, she’d download every song she could before the company began charging.

“Everyone in the music industry has a lot of money — I don’t have any,” she said. “Personally, I don’t see what they’re complaining about.”

Rob Soto, a junior computer science major, said he won’t pay for music.

“There’s ways to get free music, without using Napster,” he said. “I use the audiograbber program that makes MP3s out of songs on CDs. Musicmatch does the same thing.”

For more free music, students can go to MP3.com, www.audiofind.com, or www.musicnotes.com, to name a few.

Musician Moby, at Macaddict.com, said most people he knows who listen to a lot of MP3s will download a lot of different songs.

“If they like the song, they’ll go out and buy the album,” Moby said. “The record company doesn’t want me to say this, but out of the millions of MP3 files that are out there, if someone chooses to download one of my songs or an album of mine, I’m very flattered.”

But some students simply download music, refusing to pay for a $16 CD.

Freshman mathematics major Joe Szabo said he downloads all of his music from Napster.

“Since the beginning of Napster, I haven’t bought a single CD,” he said.

Freshman marketing major Senita Harris said she uses Napster as a way to preview a CD she wishes to purchase.

“Users get first-hand experience at listening to what they want to spend money on,” she said. “When they begin charging, I’ll go to another site to download music.”

Kai-on Fung, a senior computer science major, said he refuses to use Napster or receive free MP3s.

“I buy CDs all the time,” Fung said.

Michael Oller, a freshman electrical engineering major, said he doesn’t believe this music-stealing technique has any effect on the CD money market.

“Little 13-year-old girls are still having their parents buy them the latest Backstreet Boys or N’Sync CD,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story