If you're one of the so-called wired generation, you've surely heard about Napster. And you've surely heard how Napster's been sued by Metallica, then Dr Dre, and soon after, the recording industry. And how they were shut down and how there was a Friday midnight deadline and millions of last-chance-to downloads occurred as the zero hour came near. And then they got a last minute appeal which saved them from extinction. So Napster's got nabbed and then not quite.

     Personally, I've never used Napster--I'm one of the unfortunate, highly frustrated ones who still has a turtle-slow connection to the net and can't practically benefit from Napster's wonders. Yet I've seen it in action and I can see why in such a short time--who heard of Napster about a year ago?--it became the cause celebre of the net. Think about it: Unlimited musical downloads of CD quality...for free. Have a menage a trois with Napster, the ownership of a CD burner and a cable modem and one practically wouldn't have to buy another CD again.

     It all sounds like a music fan's nirvana, but others don't like the idea one bit: the recording industry and the artist themselves. You see, if you don't buy a CD but instead download it for free on the net, that's mula that the recording industry isn't getting. It's estimated that the industry has lost 300 million dollars since Napster's advent. As for the artists, Napster's all right when you're an unknown who wants everyone from Alaska to Siberia to hear your work But when you're an established artist who can typically sell tens of thousands of records of a new release, Napster's very bad news. If you're the likes of the Backstreet Boys, you should be concerned, because of Napster you might not be able to build that indoor water-theme park you been wanting to add to your 20-acre mansion for the past ten minutes.

     I can side with the artists striking against Napster--it's basically piracy. Who's actually making money off Napster? It seems like the worst business proposition--allow people to have music for free...ad infinitum. For the recording industry, I don't feel a bit sorry. For years, record executives have exploited artists and made mountains of green stash from holding musicians to slave deals and pumping purile mass-pop trash. The recording industry, like the worst of evil empires, needs to be toppled. And I don't feel too sorry for certain artists--Metallica, for example, has become too successful for its own good.

     Napster may be sunk down in time, and yes, there are plenty of other sites out there who will take its place. What no one's figuring out yet is how to come up with a business model to control the revolution unleashed by Napster. CD-quality MP3s are the standard on the net, and their capacity for replication is seemingly endless. Even if one were to pay a few bucks at an artist's web site for a few MP3s, that buyer can share those MP3s with fifty or more buddies, who in turn will share with more buddies, and the artist won't see one crumpled buck.

     The era of digital media has dawned. Soon, the explosion which occured in the world of music will occur in the film and book world. Just on the news, it's estimated that 350 thousand films are being ilegally downloaded on the net every day. In about a decade, the way in which we consume media will change so radically as to render celluloid film and the printed book extinct.

     Someone better figure out how to stop this stampede of boundless technology before it tramples us. For the time being, enjoy Napster before it's done. Zero hour's around the corner.