Doubts are so strong about the future that some record industry bigwigs are wistfully longing for the good old days of Napster.

"We may look back and say, 'If there had been a way for the music companies to come to peace with Napster, then we might be at a very different, (better) place,'" one label executive said, requesting anonymity. "I'm worried that some of the offerings (the labels are coming up with) might be too little, too late."

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"The labels managed to buy themselves six to nine months with the Napster case. (But) there is a new emerging wave of Napster competitors," including Audiogalaxy, Aimster and Music City.

"These newcomers," Mooradian notes, "are far more difficult to litigate against." Their distributed architecture and search function allows the companies to make the case that they're just enabling collaboration, not infringing on copyrights. Just as AOL can't be held responsible for every post in their forums, the argument goes, the file-sharer can't be held accountable for the legal status of every MP3, game or video that it helps pass.

"In some respects, this brings the labels back to square one," Mooradian said.

One label executive agreed, saying, "I fear we're getting into a game of whack-a-mole, where we sue Napster, then we sue Aimster and so on and so on."

thanks to Scripting News