SAN FRANCISCO – Attorneys for the Recording Industry Association of America and Napster met in a San Francisco court for almost three hours Wednesday, where they discussed matters such as how effectively each side is complying with an injunction imposed in March by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel.

The closed-door meeting at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was also attended by Patel, court-appointed moderator A. J. "Nick" Nichols and technical experts from the RIAA and Napster. The meeting was the latest development in the song-swapping company's long-running legal struggle with the recording industry.

In a brief interview after the meeting, neither the RIAA's lead attorney nor Napster CEO Hank Barry would comment on what was discussed, saying the meetings were closed to the public.

Patel has set a series of guidelines for the RIAA team and Napster to follow, which require the two sides to work together to some degree to implement a filtering system that enables Napster to prevent its users from trading copyrighted songs.

The meeting was expected to include a discussion of how well Napster and the RIAA are complying with that order, a Napster spokesman said.

There was speculation that Wednesday's meeting also might address a licensing deal Napster signed Tuesday with MusicNet, an online distributor of music whose backers include three major labels – EMI, Warner Music Group and Bertelsmann. The deal should allow Napster to offer songs from the three labels as part of a subscription service it plans to launch in the third quarter, so long as it can convince them that it has taken sufficient steps to protect their copyright material, officials said.

RIAA attorney Russell Frackman wouldn't comment on whether the MusicNet deal was discussed.

"I am not involved in the business side of things," he said.

Barry said his company's press release regarding the MusicNet deal "speaks for itself" and declined further comment.

Frackman and Barry said the nature of the day's proceedings would not permit them to comment on anything else that was discussed. Both men left the courthouse quickly, exchanging neither words nor glances with each other on their way out.

It remains unclear how Tuesday's deal between Napster and MusicNet will affect the copyright lawsuit moving forward. Patel has had regular meetings with Nichols – a Silicon Valley veteran who holds a Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University – to help her assess how well both sides are complying with her injunction.

Napster and the RIAA have been forced to share the burden of identifying which songs should be blocked from Napster's site. In the weeks since Napster implemented a filtering system to block songs, the company has seen use of its service fall dramatically.