I think it's unlikely in this case. Content producers ask for enormous up fronts, and you'd either hire very good in house attorneys or pay Fenwick & West or W

I think it's unlikely in this case. Content producers ask for enormous up fronts, and you'd either hire very good in house attorneys or pay Fenwick & West or Wilson Sonsini a ton of money. Not to mention the RIAA had just lost in June '99 their lawsuit against Diamond, manufacturer of the Rio mp3 player, [1] essentially challenging the legitimacy of the idea of mp3 players period. In 2000 the RIAA was in the midst of suing napster [2]; Rhapsody, the first legal music service that I'm aware of, wasn't released until 2001, and they didn't get anything but indie music until mid 2002 (not quite sure about this date). [3] I think it's safe to say it took both contacts and a ton of money, neither of which nullsoft had outside aol. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_(online_music_service) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_(online_music_service)