THE METALLICA-NAPSTER SPARRING CONTEST CONTINUES

After receiving a list of 335,435 users that rock band Metallica believes are copyright infringers, Napster has agreed to remove those users from its music-swapping service. But as far as the pending lawsuit between the two parties is concerned, it may not matter.

Yesterday (5/3), Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Metallica attorney Howard King personally delivered 60,000 pages, in 13 boxes, to Napster's San Mateo, CA, office, elaborately detailing alleged copyright violations of Metallica songs available through Napster.

"If the claims are submitted properly, the company will take the appropriate actions to disable the users Metallica has identified," said Napster attorney Laurence Pulgram. "Of course, if the band would provide the names in computerized form, rather than in tens of thousands of pages of paper intended to create a photo op, that would expedite the process."

But even with Napster's promise to remove the names, a spokesperson for Metallica said the band was proceeding with its lawsuit against the company.

The move to name names by the band has caused a tremendous backlash with Metallica's fans. In an online chat on Tuesday (5/2) Metallica guitarist James Hetfield defended the band's ploy, emphasizing that they are only targeting Napster, and will not sue any of the users.

"All the people doing illegal things here, whether with good or bad intentions, we are not going after individual fans," Hetfield said. "Metallica has always felt fans are family. And family members are forgiving of one another when they screw each other over, right?"