a. it knowingly encouraged and assisted in the infringement of copyrights
The specific language of the appeals court ruling against Napster in 2001 stated that Napster "knowingly encourages and assists its users to infringe the record companies' copyrights." The official case was A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the ruling that had been made by the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
