Napster attorney joins Gore campaign in Florida

Al Gore has added high-profile attorney David Boies to the growing legal team hired to represent the vice president while final election results are being tallied in Florida.

Boies spoke to the news media today on behalf of Gore's campaign after a Florida court upheld an evening deadline for a recount now under way in the state. Boies told reporters that more legal action is a possibility.

Boies currently represents Napster, a popular music-swapping Web site that is locked in a nasty court battle with the record industry over alleged copyright infringement.

A week after the country voted for the next U.S. president, Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush remain locked in a near dead heat, with the deciding votes apparently to be determined by the recount.

A representative of Gore's campaign could not immediately be reached for comment on Boies' role with the growing legal team.

Representing the vice president during the postelection turmoil is the latest of several high-profile cases Boies has been involved with. He first gained a measure of fame while serving as the U.S. Justice Department's special counsel in its historic antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.

Before joining the Justice Department, Boies defended IBM against antitrust charges.

This past June, Boies joined Napster's legal team, defending the start-up against charges of copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco is scheduled to issue a ruling any day on whether to uphold an injunction that threatens to shut down the site.