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had resorted to arguing that even if the ruling was essentially sound, it was too harsh. Most memorably, he had cited the opinion of his son, a Napster user who had reported that forcing Napster to weed out copyrighted material "would be like trying to take the piss out of a pool."

With no idea how close they had come to failing to win the stay and no clue that their best hope on the bench would be off the case by October, the Napster crew exploded with joy. They would have months to convince the appeals judges to reverse Patel, make a deal with the labels, or develop a new system—possibly all three. Napster director John Hummer strode around the office and crowed. "This is like the playoffs," said the former NBA center. "They won the first game, and we won the second game. It's going to seven, and we're going to win it." Others in the office jumped up and down and hugged each other at the news. "It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life," Kessler said. "I was overwhelmed afterward that I only then realized how stressed out I had been."

On Monday, Barry sent another group e-mail, thanking all for their work "under difficult and changing circumstances." He gave the schedule for paper filings and arguments before the appeals court, then dropped a bombshell: "You may well see reports in the newspapers suggesting that we are trying to get a settlement with the record companies. These reports are true. We're exploring several business models, and we'll probably be discussing them more in public as the week goes on ... the basic options are an advertising model, a subscription model, or a hybrid of the two. Our bottom line is to keep the service convenient and easy to use for the Napster community, there is no clear response from the record companies to our overtures yet. We'll keep you informed of any developments."

In fact, Barry had been trying to get a deal with the labels from as early as June, when his venture-firm partner and fellow Napster director Hummer called Edgar Bronfman. Bronfman was CEO of Seagram Co. Ltd., owner of the largest record firm, Universal Music. More important, Bronfman was far from being an old-school music executive, having led Seagram into the business only recently from its beverage-industry roots. Bronfman was confident that the music industry would win in court,