America's major record companies, which successfully sued to shut down the online music-swapping service Napster, suffered a setback today as the judge in the case allowed Napster to seek evidence that the record companies colluded to monopolize the digital music market.

In her ruling, Judge Marilyn Patel of Federal District Court in Northern California wrote that while the evidence before the court had thus far been limited, she found reason for concern given that the five major record labels have created two joint ventures to distribute music over the Internet themselves.

"These ventures look bad, smell bad and sound bad," Judge Patel wrote. She added, "If Napster is correct, these plaintiffs are attempting the near monopolization of the digital distribution market."