This kind of technology is such a fundamental part of the Internet that to try to have a blanket ban against all technology like this is essentially saying people on the Internet can't exchange files with each other. You just can't do that.

Neither digital security nor lawsuits will stop Internet theft of content.

The basic problem is that DRM is trying to keep honest people honest. With Napster out there, that's not good enough. It only takes one person to break the encryption, and then the encumbered version is competing with the unencumbered version on Napster.

Napster has always been a questionable business. They've never been a business making money. So what this really puts doubt on is whether they're ever going to be a service that makes any money or at some point they're just going to quietly fade away into Internet oblivion.

When the record industry is identifying particular pieces of music on Napster, they're pointing to specific files and where they see a file name. But clever users of Napster are doing things like writing the name backwards or putting it in code.

Also, musicians and authors will go outside of the major industries to speak directly to consumers. That's starting to be a small trend now, but we see that becoming a very major trend within about two years.