Case Against Napster Backers Gets Green Light

A federal court has allowed record labels to continue a lawsuit against Bertelsmann and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, both onetime backers of the defunct Napster file-swapping network.

The ongoing trial, which relates to actions now years past, marks an unusual and potentially precedent-setting attempt to hold financial backers liable in a roundabout sense for the legal transgressions of companies they fund.

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