I don't think napster took away from the recording industry at all. I think it helped. When napster was around it helped introduce me to a lot of different bands I probably would have never heard of otherwise. Some of the smaller guys that advertising had almost no part of. It also introduced me to some of the smaller record labels. When I found something I liked I went out and bought it simply because it's hard to get an mp3 to sound as good as a cd, especially on some decent stereo equipment.
Think of it like this, if you're "stealing" music that's of a substandard quality and dealing with it odds are you wouldn't have bought a cd anyway, you're too cheap to start with! Plus these guys that were just getting all their music off of napster had to have friends, and those friends had friends, blah blah blah, it's free advertising. Instead of fighting through the polotics of trying to air time on the radio your music is all over. Rural areas, suburbs, and anything in between.... Musicians weren't losing money, there's no way,