When Hollywood studios go into court Thursday to argue that DVD-copying software is illegal, they'll stand alongside a lawyer who has quietly had as much influence on the Net as any well-known code-slinger.

Movie studio attorney Russ Frackman is the same lawyer who has represented the recording industry against Napster and a host of other file-swapping services. Over the course of four years, he and his legal team have made a deep mark on Net culture and history, stopping in their tracks some of the all-time fastest-growing and most-popular online services.

Most of the headlines--and most file swappers' feelings of animosity--have been reserved for more vocal public figures such as the Recording Industry Association of America's chief executive, Hilary Rosen. But it has been the 56-year-old Frackman, in the file-swapping cases and in Thursday's DVD copying case, who has led the nuts-and-bolts legal drive against the popular services, telling a courtroom story of Internet piracy in a way that has consistently led judges to rule in copyright owners' favor.

"He has such an ability to communicate the basic story of a case without getting lost in the legal technicalities," says RIAA President Cary Sherman, who has worked closely with Frackman for years. "He can function at the legal technicality level. But he doesn't lose sight of the forest for the trees in the courtroom."

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