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Shawn went up solo, he told the crowd he didn’t know what to do onstage. A Nullsoft employee called out, “Steal something!” which Shawn didn’t think was funny. Soon it grew obvious why Love, draped in a clingy white dress, had wanted Shawn by himself. She couldn’t keep her hands off him, and she introduced him to the crowd as “my future husband.”

To his credit, Barry brought Ritter with him to accept the innovative start-up award and graciously pushed him alone toward the microphone, where Ritter raised his fist and saluted Napster’s by-then 35 million users. Afterward, Love came to the Napster table and would not go away. She sat in Shawn’s lap, flirting heavily enough to get mentioned for it in the San Jose Mercury News. What she didn’t know was that the woman seething quietly by Shawn’s side, Alicia Morga, was his girlfriend.

Physical attraction aside, Love had another reason for being drawn to Shawn: He was the enemy of her enemy. In fact, if Shawn was the record industry’s biggest enemy, Love was probably the runner-up. In January 2000, after Love announced that she wouldn’t deliver the records she owed Geffen Records and its parent, Universal, Geffen had sued her. She countersued, arguing that the contract was “unconscionable” and therefore unenforceable. Love’s countersuit said that it was virtually impossible for bands to turn in the seven albums required in traditional seven-year deals, since the labels also require lengthy tours and sometimes insist on gaps between releases. And the record companies kept the books, charging for production, marketing, and other costs before distributing any royalties. In the case of Love’s band, Hole, after seven years of work, the four band members had collected a total of $375,000, less than $14,000 per year apiece.

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A WEEK AFTER THE Rave Awards, an old friend heard that Jordan Ritter was at Napster and tracked him down. Ritter wrote back a long e-mail explaining how worn out he was.

“Most people want to know what happened at Napster. You know, I’m sorry, not only am I personally sick of Napster (as if that weren’t bad enough), but I’m personally sick of talking about Napster. I stayed only for my fellow team members (no, not the money, they jacked all of us except Shawn), and at one point even for Shawn, but my personal growth

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