METALLICA BACKLASH INCREASES
ON THE WEB
In reaction to Metallica's decision to drop dimes on its Napster-using fans, Internet-based backlash against the band has been mounting.
British paper The Register reported that a band of irate programmers is developing a Napster clone that will specifically target and offer Metallica tracks. They're calling the app "Metallicster." The software was originally created to see how Napster works, but its function was…er…adjusted in protest of the metal band's legal assault on Napster.
"Yes, that's right," the group's Web site proclaims, ‘a dedicated Napster clone for spreading Metallica media—that's all their music as MP3s, and even all their music videos/live gigs etc.! If they were upset about poor old Napster, we hope they get even more upset about this shit!"
While Metallicster isn't yet ready for launch, the site does offer the skinny on its groovy functions, a few screen shots of the app in action and the app's logo—an obvious rip-off of the Napster logo with the words "metallica specific media simply and oh so sweeeeetly… haha!" underneath.
Stateside, ZDNet reported that Seth Dennis, a fairly resourceful 15-year-old from North Carolina, stumbled upon a way to circumnavigate being branded a Napster pariah. When the teen clicked on Napster recently, a dialogue box popped up informing him that the Napster Beta 6 upgrade was being loaded onto his computer. The Beta 6 upgrade turned out to be a Trojan horse which installed a hidden key in his registry, blocking him from Napster.
After numerous failed attempts to uninstall the Beta 6 and to log on under different names, Dennis finally stumbled onto the solution: reinstalling the Beta 5 version of the software.
Failing that, of course, there's always Scour, iMesh, Gnutella and CuteMX.
Best of all is a hilarious animated Flash movie offered on the CampChaos.com site, which shows a hyperactive Lars Ulrich bouncing around a huge pile of moneybags. While Ulrich explains the difference between the "good" Metallica fans and the "bad" ones, a hulking, monosyllabic James Hetfield punctuates the proceedings with statements like "T-shirts good!"
You can go directly to the movie, via this handy-dandy link: http://www.campchaos.com/cartoons/napsterbad/napsterbad_56k.html.
All this AND a Lars Ulrich-Chuck D face-off over Napster on tonight's "Charlie Rose."
Set your VCRs and buckle up. Something tells us this is all far from over.
