Intellectual property and open standards To date, the record companies have been the ones by and large complaining that Napster takes money from artists. This is ironic, since record companies also take money from artists, in the form of various fees and rights. Although there are exceptions to this, (i.e. Metallica etc), most artists get a raw deal in this game as the record companies, controlling the distribution rights, create an arena where only a few artists can make it big. Napster destroys this monopoly over distribution, which is the real reason record companies hate it. Here's a piece that talks about rights in the digital age from an artist's point of view.

Oh, and the WTO is asking telephone companies to liberalize. Telcos are among the most monopolisitic and grasping organizations in the world, bar tin-pot dictatorships, so I would not expect anything to happen on this front anytime soon.