By now everyone has gotten word of a San Francisco Federal judge-Marilyn Hall Patel, ordering an injunction against Napster until they and the music industry which is represented by the RIAA go to trial. Patel sided with the RIAA in her ruling when she noted that Napster users were engaged in wholesale copyright infringement by trading their favorite songs. She rejected Napster’s arguments that the service was designed so users can ‘share’ music with one another. She stated suggested that the minds behind Napster have created a monster and thus should’ve come up with a way to protect the interest of the music industry when designing this system. This is clearly a major set back for Napster which maintains it will go to trial with this whole thing. There is speculation that in a full trial they will be found guilty of piracy.

While record labels are rejoicing, this battle is far from over. Napster was the tip of the iceberg. There are other programs and services out on the net that will allow users to share and trade music. Scour Exchange, iMesh, Gnutella and Freenet are just a few of the programs that are available. Many of these distribution programs are for free and unlike Napster do not have a central server. Yesterday’s ruling does not effect them. And even if there was an order to shut them down. The question would be ‘shut down what’?

As for Napster, they experienced an unprecedented amount of visitors who came on board attempting to download songs before the Friday deadline takes place. Music fans to the site have been angry about the decision and have been pointing their fingers at Metallica and Dr Dre as the main spark plugs. Some have suggested a boycott against them and any other recording artist who has come out against Napster. Drummer Lars Urlich has repeatedly said that he cares little about a boycott against his band. In fact he has gone on record requesting that fans who disagree with his harsh stance should do just that. He claims that he doesn’t want Napster users as fans.

The big question is what does this all mean? Clearly the record industry was out to lunch when Internet technology came down the pipe and they got caught slipping. They are now trying to play catch up and maintain their middleman stronghold and position over the consumer and the artist. You can say what you will, but this scenario maybe just a temporary victory for the RIAA. As they struggle to apply old school techniques to a new technologically savvy world, they may find two things happening. First they will have under estimated the consumer and the frustration many of them feel about being pimped by these labels which often lose site as to the reason people went on line in the first place. Second, by trying to exert full control over the music distribution, they may find themselves killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The keys to this equation are the fans. Napster and the music biz depend solely upon their desire to head in one direction or another. Hopefully the major labels figure this out and come up with a plan that will

Leave everyone satisfied. One thing is for sure, according to recent surveys, most consumers aren’t feeling going on line and paying a subscription fee to download music from a label site. Chuck D of Public Enemy and Rapstation.com said it best when he noted; "If Patel was the key judge at the last turn of the century, we'd still be relying on horses and buggies and trains to get around. Stopping the process of file sharing is like trying to control the rain."