NAPSTER COURT DATE SET

A federal appeals court said Tuesday it would hear oral arguments in the Napster case the first week of October.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a three-judge panel would hear the case sometime between Oct. 2-6 in San Francisco.

The recording industry wants Napster shut down, alleging it is contributing to widespread copyright infringement.

Napster maintains it is just providing a service for users to share music and not all of the music is copyright protected.

The 9th Circuit temporarily halted a federal judge's July order shutting down Napster.

The court's announcement Tuesday came as various groups filed so-called friend-of-the-court briefs urging the 26-judge court to allow Napster to continue its music-swapping service.

One of the largest trade groups to submit papers was the Consumer Electronics Assn., which represents 600 members, including America Online Inc., Apple Computer, Intel and Microsoft. The group contends U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel misapplied copyright law that protects technologies with ''substantial non-infringing uses.'' If her decision is used as precedent for other cases, it could threaten development across the consumer technology sector, they say.