Dom

The irrepressible Napster is back -- and once again as culturally hip as Mini Coopers and Mark Wahlberg-sized biceps.

Need proof? Check out the latest box-office hit, "The Italian Job,'' in which Napster creator Shawn Fanning makes a cameo as himself.

The former bad boy of Internet song swapping fits neatly into the remake of a 1969 thriller about a band of thieves who commit a gold heist in Venice. Fanning is there to establish the hacker credentials of the crew's computer genius, Lyle, who claims that he -- not Fanning -- invented Napster.

Fanning appears in a flashback dorm-room scene, grinning as he swipes the program from his sleeping roommate, Lyle. (That's how the service got its name, Lyle laments, "It's because I was napping when he stole the idea from me!'')

It's vintage Fanning. The trademark baseball cap, the sly smirk, the absence of words (hey, Fanning's a quiet guy who speaks most eloquently through his computer code).

The film's producer, Donald De Line, said the filmmakers reached Fanning last year through a single phone call to Napster. They sent him the script and invited him to play himself. "He said, 'absolutely,' '' De Line recalled. "We were shocked.''

The scene was filmed last fall in a classroom of Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, which was made up to look like a dorm room.

"He said that it was a blast,'' said De Line. "He was extremely polite. Very quiet. Kind of reserved. I thought, who is this kid who is the Napster? I was surprised. I expected something brash and kind of arrogant. He was the opposite.''

We can only guess that, after seeing his creation buffeted into oblivion by the recording industry, Fanning relished his cinematic comeuppance. In one scene, in which Lyle successfully hijacks the Los Angeles Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control Operations Center, the following message flashes across a bank of giant displays.

"You'll never shut down the real Napster.''

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Source: SiliconValley