"The recording industry is being shortsighted in the vehemence of its attacks on Napster. It would be much wiser to arrange a settlement where it works with Napster to provide legitimate services."
Even if Napster loses, the recording industry will have more battles ahead of it.
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Other services, such as a program called Gnutella, lack a centralized server and are thus much harder to block--technologically or legally.
"Other modes of digital distribution like Gnutella have no center, no physical location and create what amounts to a new network of connection with each use," says Nesson. "Open distribution based on programs such as this will be much harder to deal with."