Metallica Pins Napster to the Mat
Napster Blocks 317,377 Users From Service
Will Fans Continue to Support Metallica?
May 11, 2000
Music software company Napster said yesterday that it has blocked 317,377 users that were named by Metallica as allegedly trading Metallica's music, thereby infringing on the rock band's copyrights.
As discussed in earlier articles, the band delivered huge cardboard boxes full of legal documents identifying users who allegedly traded Metallica songs online. Metallica demanded that these Metallica music lovers be blocked from the MP3 music-swapping service.
"Napster has blocked all users identified by Metallica as allegedly infringing, based on Metallica's sworn allegations against these usernames," the company wrote on its Web site.
The WIZARD wonders if the fans of Metallica will tolerate this action or will there be a genuine fan revolt? Chat rooms are buzzing and the parody site PayLar$.com has attracted a lot lot of Internet and media attention, but we doubt most users or fans will take any action. On the other hand, mp3 fans will continue to trade, just moving to IRC chat rooms and random, individual trading sites that will spring up one day and disappear the next.
The Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster in December, alleging it had contributed to numerous copyright violations. Metallica and rapper Dr. Dre last month filed their own suits against Napster. A few musicians and groups have sided with Napster, but most are on the sidelines, waiting for the dust to clear.
Napster wants to let its members know that they have a way to appeal their eviction.
"Because of the methods employed by Metallica in assembling its list of usernames, it is possible that users have been mistakenly implicated as infringing the copyrights of songs and recordings originally included on commercially released Metallica albums," the company wrote on its Web site.
Expect few if any members to appeal. Appealing the action could lead to reactivation of a Napster account, but it also could expose a person to a lawsuit from Metallica, the company said. Napster offered a full explanation of the appeal process on its Web site.
The legal threats won't scare off traders. They just won't bother to waste their time, when other, safer alternatives exist. Napster, however, will be quickly destroyed by the defection of users.
Unless fans turn on Metallica, stop buying albums and boycott concerts, Napster won't be the only loser. Eventually you will lose the right to make personal copies of music.
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