Napster has been buried in the "Pet Sematary" and is now coming back to walk the earth once again. Does Stephenen King own stock?

Controversial song swapping site Napster, the former nemesis of the music industry, is set to relaunch before the end of the year with whizzkid founder Shawn Fanning back on board.

Roxio, the US software company that bought the Napster brand in a fire sale late last year, has revealed it plans to relaunch the site as a paid-for download service before the end of the year.

Confirming the plans, Elliot Carpenter, the chief financial officer of Roxio, said that the company, which specialises in CD copying software, was in advanced negotiations with major record labels.

Mr Fanning, the former college student who founded the site from a laptop in the back room of his uncle's house at the age of 19, has been recruited by Roxio to work as a consultant on the project. [Guardian]