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By Ian Jones, 26 July 2000 00:30

COMMENT Scene one: A party. Record executives engaging in debauched behaviour typical of their self-obsessed, cocaine-fuelled lives. They're doing their best to spend the money their hugely profitable companies have made. Scene two: Teenager at computer. He's writing software that allows people to share sound files electronically and listen to music they've never heard before. Scene three: The Meeting. Heads of the 'big five' music companies gather round a table. All are overweight and overwrought. They hatch a plan to sue the kid into oblivion and steal his invention. Is this a Hollywood blockbuster or insane reality? Unfortunately, excluding a bit of poetic licence, it's the latter. The Napster case has become a legend in its own lifetime, and today another key scene will be written. A San Francisco District court has to decide whether to grant an injunction against the company to make using its software illegal. It's one battle the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is likely to lose. Most lawyers consider such a measure harsh when material harm to their businesses has yet to be proved conclusively. But don't think Napster has therefore won. Whichever side ultimately triumphs in court - and there is a definite case against Napster - both sides could end up as losers. Napster as a company looks set to implode because of its lack of a money-making business model. Not only that, there are now so many clones of the technology that the RIAA might as well accept it's too late to stop it, and try to make the most of the possibility that it could in fact boost music sales. The internet isn't just revolutionising the way music is sold and distributed - it's changing the whole face of the entertainment industry. It's time record and film companies work embrace developments rather than perpetually call for the lawyers. Perhaps they should make that Napster blockbuster - can't wait for the legal battle over the soundtrack rights.