Taps for Napster?

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TYLER MALLORY--AP

DAVID BOIES: From Microsoft to free music on the Net

Many legal experts are calling Napster the underdog in this week's legal face-off. In addition to Judge Patel's initial ruling in the case, the music industry was heartened by a New York federal court decision in April that MP3.com , another music-sharing service, had violated music copyrights. MP3.com ended up settling with some of the record companies suing it, agreeing to pay some $100 million and to hand over licensing fees in the future. But even if the record companies defeat Napster, that will not solve the problem they created when they digitized music in the first place, making copying so easy to do. "If they were to shut it down in America, it would move to Canada or somewhere else," says Boies. "There's a reason they call it the World Wide Web--it's literally worldwide." At the same time, newer, more decentralized file-sharing systems like Gnutella and Freenet, which have no central authority in charge, are emerging. When people use those services to exchange pirated music, it will be hard to find anyone to sue.

Which is why, even as record companies and individual artists pursue their cause in courtrooms across the country, the industry is working harder than ever to develop new encryption methods like SDMI, which uses digital "watermarks" to prevent unauthorized copying. In combatting the threat posed by new technology, the music industry may find that it's not law, but technology, that saves it.