The recording industry may be hoisted on its own petard if the Napster-like music swapping service called Aimster is successful in its legal strategy against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Unlike Napster, Aimster (which has no central servers to maintain and leaves users individually responsible for their actions) encrypts transmissions, and so there is no way for the RIAA or any other outside party to distinguish between files which are in compliance with copyright law and those that infringe on it. Of course, RIAA could simply decrypt the files -- but then it would be in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law that it strongly supports, and that makes it a criminal offense to circumvent encryption protection of copyrighted material. (The New Republic 21 May 2001) http://www.tnr.com/cyberlaw/babbitt051101.html -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
