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Record stores are devoting a diminishing amount of space to classical music, to the dismay of music lovers. Online distribution may offer hope for the genre, according to an in-depth">http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/21/arts/music/21TOMM.html">in-depth report by Anthony Tommasini in the October 21 edition of the New York Times.

The Recording">http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is trying to distance itself from an attempt earlier this month to insert language into a broad anti-terrorism bill that would have given the organization's members the right to hack into computers operated by Internet music sites—as well as those owned by private individuals—to find and delete pirated recordings. The wording suggested by the RIAA would have excluded copyright holders from criminal charges for causing damage to computers in the effort to control piracy.

For the entertainment industry, every perceived threat produces an overblown reaction. After a protracted and very public struggle, file-sharing upstart Napster was cowed into submission; MP3.com's "personal music library" was rendered ineffective through a combination of legal pressure and co-option; other Internet music experiments are threatened with lawsuits too costly to contest.