Napster is preparing its much hyped return, but it will have to compete in a crowded, competitive cyberspace and it still does not have the right to allow users to transfer music to devices. In early 2002, the NPD Group conducted its MusicWatch survey. In it, people were asked to name the online music service they used. A small portion said Napster. That may not seem very surprising, except for this: Six months earlier, the American government had shut down Napster Inc for promoting piracy. Had Napster's teenage founder, Shawn Fanning, secretly unlocked a backdoor entrance to his free music service? Hardly. Instead, the poll underscored the power of the Napster brand. In its short, tortured one-and-a-half-year life span, the brand had emerged as the Kleenex of downloadable music. That branding power is exactly what Roxio Inc, the digital media publisher, is betting on. It bought Napster for US$5 million last year, and plans to start a new -- and legal -- service called Napster 2.0 by this Christmas. So far, the Napster buzz is working in at least one regard: Since the brand was acquired last November, Roxio's stock has climbed 72 percent, to US$7.45. No matter how eagerly awaited, however, Napster 2.0 will pale by comparison with its renegade predecessor in some ways. Full article here