Napster's Heirs and the Continuing Thrill of the Free Ride

(Editor's Note: This marks the inaugural edition of Tech Support, TSC reporter Tish Williams' weekly consumer technology column. Every Thursday, Tech Support advises readers -- the non-gearheads among us -- on the easiest, quickest and least-expensive ways to tap into the newest and hottest trends in technology.)

The Internet is a vast continent of bargain content, software and relationships with grammatically challenged correspondents from cold climates. And you are no Ponce de Leon. You are not getting off the boat, even when scurvy becomes an issue.

Yet, you are tempted by the stories coming back from the shore about free music. What is this heathen service, this Napster? Do these savages know nothing of intellectual property rights and artists' need to make a decent living? And if they still don't, you'd love to get a copy of Mariah Carey's new album for the kiddies without paying retail.

Unfortunately, if you are just getting interested now, your timidity has outlasted the heyday of Napster, a service that allowed millions of youngsters to swap music files and royally peeve the Hollywood establishment. Napster's legal Achilles' heel was the fact that it collected files in a central location, which could be shut down. This weakness has been eliminated, however, in a bold new breed of Napster offshoots, which connect fast and slow computers around the world into a loosely connected federation of users willing to share the fruits of others' labors freely. ...