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cally and artistically,” Ulrich testified. “We have to find a way to welcome the technological advances and cost savings of the Internet while not destroying the artistic diversity and the international success that has made our intellectual-property industries the greatest in the world.” With Barry not pushing for a new law, there was little that Hatch could do. At the end of the year, Cooney left and joined Napster as a lobbyist, recusing himself for a year from speaking with Hatch.

By the time of the next hearings, in April 2001, everything had changed. Not only Judge Patel but also the Ninth Circuit had spoken against Napster. Only now did Barry ask Congress to force digital licenses on the record industry. “The Internet needs a simple and comprehensive solution, similar to the one that allowed radio to succeed—not another decade of litigation,” Barry said. But it was too late. In the intervening months, an army of entertainment-industry lobbyists had descended on Hatch. They both talked tough and played to his ego. The most impressive display of the second tactic unfolded at a Washington hotel on March 21, just weeks before the new hearings. That’s when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which presents the Grammy Awards, bestowed Hero Awards on an unlikely group, including Hatch, powerful House Democrat John Conyers, and, for credibility, hip-hop star Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott. At the lavish awards dinner, the record industry outdid itself by drafting Nashville singer Natalie Grant to croon one of Hatch’s own songs, “I Am Not Alone,” to the audience. According to the academy, the crowd went wild.

The industry didn’t have to stall Hatch for long. He would be out of the center chair in two months, to be succeeded by Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, after Sen. Jim Jeffords bolted the Republican Party and handed Democrats a Senate majority. And Leahy had bigger priorities than following the advice of a corporate lawyer turned Silicon Valley CEO, especially one whose company had been damned by a federal appeals court as a piracy profiteer.

The last Senate hearings gave Bertelsmann little hope, and the company was growing frustrated. The initial six-month estimate for a legitimate service was ending, and the product was still at least three months away. In April, Bertelsmann’s eCommerce Group met to discuss two goals: getting content from the other majors and getting management