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chandise, Shawn was shocked to hear that he might have exclusive dibs. It was yet another thing that his uncle, the board, or both had done to screw up the company. “You mean he claims to have exclusive rights to our merchandise?????? No WAY!” he wrote to the executives. Richardson tried to resolve the matter on the fly, replying the next day that there wasn’t any need for a board decision. “Tom Carmody has NO rights to our merchandise, no contract, no commitment, no nothing,” she wrote. She said that in October, she had been willing to let him handle the matter, but that too much time had gone by since. Glossing over the problems with taking in revenue, she suggested that Brooks take over the project and develop a merchandising plan.

In the meantime, Carmody got tired of waiting for Richardson to give him a yes or no. Figuring he had at least Fanning’s support, Carmody decided to act on his own. “I just went ahead and did it,” Carmody said. “Did I nail it down in a contract like I should have? No.” In June, Carmody arranged for Indianapolis merchandise firm Sport Service Inc. to sell Napster brand clothing through a website called Napsterstore.com. Some Napster fans found the site, and the company sold more than $60,000 worth of gear, sending a cut to Carmody. Carmody said he put a chunk of the money aside for Napster. In a little-noted case in December 2000, Napster sued Sport Service for trademark infringement, and that company quickly pulled the plug on Napsterstore.

As NAPSTER WAS LINING UP rock-band support, the Recording Industry Association was doing the same. It pressed its member labels to get rock and rap groups to come out against Napster, and some, like Peter Gabriel, obliged. “The fundamental point is: no music, no Napster. This is obviously a big business that was built by taking stuff without the consent of the artists who created it,” Gabriel said. “More and more people are going to download their music, and if it all stays free and there is no control over the payments, then it will be difficult for younger artists to make a livelihood. . . . We would first like to be consulted before our stuff gets taken, and [we’d like to] have some vote in deciding what’s distributed for free and what isn’t.” Rapper Eminem was more blunt: “I’m sorry; when I

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