Does Napster have an MP3 of the fat lady's greatest hits?

The diva of doom is in full-throated warble over the all-but-certain demise of this extraordinarily popular hangout for digital shoplifters.

Bravo, indeed.

The fate of Napster as a commercial entity is not and never has been the primary concern, at least not among those who can see beyond the base desire to score a free copy of whatever Eminem drivel is topping the charts.

What the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit did last week was nothing less than reiterate the rule of intellectual property law in what was quickly becoming a Wild, Wild West on the World Wide Web. Any notion that technology such as Napster and its peer-to-peer offspring have rendered old-economy law irrelevant has been effectively - if not permanently - laid bare as the nonsense it was all along.

Napster is but a tiny sliver of what was at stake here. Still, it's worth taking a good close look at the judges' ruling because the lessons therein will offer guidance as new Internet technologies inevitably mature into viable, legal businesses.

The news summaries you may have read fail to do justice to the breadth and depth of the flogging Napster absorbed in this 19-page ruling. With only an inconsequential exception or two, the three judges addressed, analyzed and fully repudiated each and every one of the arguments Napster, its lawyers and apologists have trotted out since this case became a cause celebre. Among them:

? "Napster is a mere conduit and can't be held responsible." Brushed aside.

? "Users themselves aren't doing anything wrong even if Napster might be." Backhanded.

? "It's just like videotaping a TV show." Not legally.

? "There's no harm here because Napster is good for CD sales." Don't make us laugh, they intoned.

Naturally, the justices made these pronouncements more civilly and wrapped them in the requisite legalese, but anyone else who has found the pro-Napster rap unconvincing and tedious won't mind wading through this document. Go see for yourself at lvalue.com/nap.html.

Napster insists, at least for public consumption, that it will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. Don't count on that happening. The full appeals court is unlikely to reverse this emphatic judgment. And anyone who believes our Supreme Court might side with Napster couldn't name the nine justices if you spotted them a Clarence and an Antonin.

The more reasonable Napsteristas have long professed a willingness to pay for what until now has been their pick of purloined MP3s. Just don't gouge us, they say. It's time for them to pay the piper.

Says who?

That would be the 2001 IDC/World Times Information Society Index, which ranks nations by prowess in four broad IT categories: computer, information, Internet and social infrastructures.

Norway and Finland took home the bronze and silver.

According to this index, the U.S. rates ninth in information infrastructure and a lowly 17th in social infrastructure.

This report is unlikely to cause a ripple among U.S. industry leaders and policy makers. We are an arrogant bunch.

However, it's one thing to be arrogant when you're clearly the best at something, be it basketball or amassing nuclear weapons. A little introspection might be in order when Scandinavia's kicking sand in your face.

Comments, news tips and Napster eulogies are always welcome. The address is buzz@nww.com.