Napster has performed its swan song.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco shut down the on-line music sharing Web site. This follows the company's lengthy battle with the Recording Industry Association of America.

As of today, the Web site will be shut down interminably at midnight, unless the Court of Appeals stays the judge's order during the appeal.

According to the judge and RIAA, Napster encouraged "wholesale infringement" against copyrights in the music industry.

The judge also ruled that one-to-one non-commercial file sharing is a violation of copyright law.

But Napster's copyright policy states that the company is not responsible for the files shared or traded on its network and that it is the responsibility of Napster users to comply with all federal and state laws, including those copyright laws applicable to music files.

Napster has already terminated the accounts of almost 30,000 members that infringed upon those laws, but that apparently was not enough for the music industry.

Now, about 70 million users are expected to be affected by the judgment by the end of the week.

But who does the music industry think it's fooling?

Shutting down one Internet site that is used to download or trade MP3s — compressed digital files that allow users to easily upload and download music — is just the beginning.

What Napster did was merely to provide a forum and software for users to share their files with others — the Web site did not provide users with MP3s.

Other MP3 Web sites pop up all over the Internet on a daily basis, providing users with the ways and means to copy music files and download them from other computers.

And, Internet users that already have access to their own MP3s will still be able to trade music via e-mail and other Web sites, such as MP3.com.

What the RIAA seems to have overlooked is that this is the same concept as copying the music of a compact disc to a cassette tape, yet the upholding of copyright laws hasn't stopped the industry from taking blank tapes off the market.

While copyrighting is a vital part of the music industry in order to protect the livelihood of artists' work, the Napster case is just one way that the industry is trying in vain to solve its problems with music pirating.

Internet users and music afficionados alike will continue to find ways to copy and download music from the Internet as long as technology provides the access and know-how to do so.