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SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys for Napster Inc. were due back in court Monday to justify the reprieve the company won in July that kept its wildly popular Internet music-sharing service up and running. 

A federal judge had issued an injunction against Napster, saying it was encouraging “wholesale infringing” against music industry copyrights. 

But only hours before Napster’s computer servers were to power down, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the injunction, keeping the company’s MusicShare service alive – at least for now. 

Lawyers for Redwood City-based Napster, which claims to have 22 million users, now have to persuade three judges on the court to keep the stay in place, pending a trial of the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuit against Napster. 

Both sides say they are fighting for their survival.  

The three-judge panel has already expressed concerns about the injunction, and will try to determine whether it was overly broad, said Marcie Mihaila,  

an appellate lawyer who has followed  

the case. Attorneys for each side will have 20 minutes to make their case. A decision is not expected for at least a month. 

“Our message will be that this service is causing serious injury to songwriters,” said Carey Ramos, who will be arguing on behalf of the recording industry. “It really needs to be restrained. We urgently