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that against Napster on far flimsier grounds. The labels went after MP3.com in the year 2000 and won a $110 million judgment over one of the dot-com's services, which allowed legitimate compact-disc owners to listen to versions of that music from wherever they logged on. The big legal issue was a small practical one: MP3.com established a database of recorded music so that when consumers electronically registered their own CDs, the company knew what music was on it. The industry argued that the very creation of that database, while made with purchased CDs, was unauthorized copying for commercial purposes and not fair use. And it won.

Oddly enough, Napster didn't start the fight in Washington that eventually was its last hope: Orrin Hatch did. The Utah Republican chaired the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, where he had been looking to make laws on issues less divisive than those that previously had split the panel, which included ideologues from both parties. Hatch had brought together diverging interests before, when he crafted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gave at least something to all sides. He had made a bigger splash by riding the Clinton-administration Justice Department to go after Microsoft. Critics pointed out that two serious Microsoft competitors happened to be based in Utah, but Hatch's brand of conservatism did call for free markets, which he felt were being strangled by the monopoly from Redmond.

During their work on Microsoft hearings, Hatch staffers led by his chief counsel, Manus Cooney, had spent many days in Silicon Valley. Cooney began hearing complaints about the difficulty in getting music licenses from the Big Five labels, and he had long conversations with Michael Robertson of MP3.com. Early in 2000, a friend suggested that Cooney check out Napster, and he downloaded the software. Cooney began tracking the RIAA lawsuit, then in its early stages. When Hummer Winblad invested in May, the entertainment industry grew more alarmed about Napster's prospects. Cooney thought the issue was something Hatch could use to forge a compromise. So he called Hank Barry at Hummer Winblad, eventually reaching the Napster CEO on his cell phone in an airport. They talked for twenty minutes, and Cooney began laying the groundwork for hearings before the Judiciary Committee.

To those familiar with reading tea leaves inside the Beltway, the wit-