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Internet brands in history, the Napster gang developed an inside joke that began with asking the delivery boy if he could bring anything that would go in a bowl, referring to a pipe. Soon, they just asked him to bring soup. Most smoking was done on the roof, but once it went further, with Bales and Parker slipping into an office and closing the door. A telltale odor seeped out. “The entire office reeked,” said Ritter, who admitted taking a hit himself. After a second incident, both Ritter and Shawn told Parker never to smoke dope in the building again.

The lack of a life outside the office also led to more than one romance, another classic side effect in the start-up world. Richardson had worked at Xtime since August, and she thought she could continue there while helping Napster. For about six weeks, she did. But Xtime, which was growing by more traditional means, wasn’t nearly as much fun. And it didn’t help her complicated relationship with Lee when he hired a voluptuous and sweet young recruiter named Jessie Garrehy. Lee began dating Garrehy, who also helped Napster’s recruiting efforts. A messy and emotionally wrenching love triangle followed as Lee saw both women. Richardson had some rough days, and after one last misstep on Lee’s part, she finally told him she was leaving Xtime to work exclusively at Napster. “I was still loyal to John, really, but I’m an extremely competitive person. I decided Napster was going to be a success no matter what,” she said. By Thanksgiving, Garrehy had broken it off with Lee, too, and begun to date Ritter, whom she found brilliant and warm.

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One thing Napster obviously needed in a hurry was a topflight lawyer. Seth Greenstein, who had provided the legal logic behind the company’s copyright defense, was in Washington, and he didn’t do corporate work. Fanning had found Greenstein through a chain of referrals that started with one of his first calls, to intellectual-property and technology specialist Andrew Bridges, of the premier Silicon Valley firm of Wilson Sonsini. Now that Napster had moved west, Fanning urged Richardson to hire Bridges, since he’d already laid the groundwork. Richardson knew others at the firm, which represents as many as half of the top companies in the Valley. She went in to meet one of her contacts and explained what Napster was about, and the lawyer seemed excited.