I think there's still some confusion going on here. Napster-the-company is doing nothing illegal. All it does is offer software and provide a free indexing service. You may want to sue Napster-the-software... but you can't sue a piece of software.

It's really only a PR issue that the industry grew, because the RIAA is right: "'If we grew 3 percent as an industry, maybe we could have grown twice as much,' [Alex Walsh, the vice president of market research for the RIAA] said. 'There is just no way to tell how much we could have lost. There is no scientific or empirical way to determine how much more music we could have sold.'" True. Still, this points to the dangers of making a snap argument that's convenient now but not thinking about the future: At some point in one of these lawsuits, the RIAA or one of its representatives will be wanting to put monetary damages on the losses, and I'm sure this will be thrown back in their face. I will if nobody else does It should be thrown back at the RIAA, because it is correct. We're all arguing from ignorance, and bluster serves no purpose.

Despite 'Piracy,' CD Sales UP: "the industry has been claiming rather loudly this year that digital piracy would hurt music retail. Despite the fact that the issue might not come up as focal point in the lawsuit, the fact that people are purchasing CDs at a higher rate than they were in 1999 is going to have to be addressed in the court of public opinion."

Napster and Friends:

From yesterday, due to the outage:

'Bizkit Bonds With Napster: "Hard rock band Limp Bizkit has teamed up with controversial Internet company Napster Inc. to launch a free U.S. concert tour, and the group's singer Monday criticized fellow artists who have accused Napster of promoting music piracy."

Over all, not an example I'm willing to follow, but I will be interested in their experiences with allowing digital signitures to be binding.

"Senior Indian government officials, however, point to some shocking cases, arguing that there's a need to regulate the cyberjungle. They cite cases where a popular Hindi film actress was depicted nude on the Internet using altered graphics." Ummm... at least in this country when officials cite reasons to regulate the internet, they make reference to billions of dollars of commerce at stake and how We Must Save The Children, which as much as I don't like the Children Excuse I like it better then We Must Save The Celebrities.

"Contrary to other Indian laws, such as the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1973, additional powers have been given to the police to tackle cybercrime. Any senior police officer can enter and search any public place on suspicion without a warrant." I don't know enough about Indian law to know how strange this is by Indian standards.