Napster CEO Hank Barry intends to outline the beneficial implications of his company's file-sharing technology on the music industry and the future of the Internet before a Senate Committee Tuesday (7/11).

Meanwhile, the music industry said it wants to tune in to a more acceptable way of sharing songs, despite being allied against Napster, the most popular online file-sharing service.

"I don't think anybody's goal is or should be to eliminate the technological capability (of Napster),'' said hilary rosen ',390,400);">hilary rosen ',390,400);">Hilary Rosen , CEO, Recording Industry Association of America. "The goal is to find a way to have the technology work with creative interests, not against them. I think that's possible.''

Barry will testify Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee regarding "The Future of Digital Music: Is There an Upside to Downloading?"

"In the end, most of the changes in technology have been beneficial to copyright holders," Barry told The Hollywood Reporter. "Certainly the film industry was one of the most vigorous opponents of the Betamax decision, and I think you would argue that Betamax was beneficial to (them)."

Barry said he will give a historical perspective on the evolution of the Internet and its purposes and an in-depth explanation of Napster's file-sharing technology.

"I think that a lot of people don't really understand how Napster works in terms of the fact that we don't have any files on our system, we don't host any content, there are no MP3 files on Napster," said Barry. "This is a community of people who are sharing files; we're just a directory."

MP3.com CEO and chairman michael robertson ',390,400);">michael robertson ',390,400);">Michael Robertson is also scheduled to testify before the committee as is Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich; Fred Erlich, President, New Technology at Sony Music Entertainment; Gnutella computer software developer Gene Kan; Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn; and Jim Griffin, CEO of Cherry Lane Digital & OneHouse.

On June 12, the RIAA, which has called Napster a haven for music piracy, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Napster. In explaining Napster's counter arguments to reporters last week, attorney David Boies accused the RIAA of trying to stifle Napster's technology to maintain dominance. "It's the kind of new technology that can threaten the economic control of a dominant trade association based on the existing technology and the RIAA is trying very fast to catch up and shut down Napster until they can dominate," Boies said.

But Rosen said the record companies have been looking at many new technologies and channels of distribution. "The record companies are in discussions internally and with external partners on various music distribution systems, including file sharing, subscriptions and downloading," she said. "I think we'll see some sort of dramatic business models emerge in the next three to four months."