RUMOR MILL
Thursday, May 4, 2000
METALLICA’S ULRICH DELIVERS NAPSTER NAMES
Amid Protesters, Band’s Drummer Says "True Fans" Understand, Respect What The Band Is Doing
A crowd of hecklers and supporters greeted Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich on Wednesday when he arrived at Napster offices to turn in the names of more than 300,000 alleged copyright infringers.
The band contends the Napster users on its list illegally traded Metallica songs online by using Napster Inc.'s popular MP3-trading software.
"The true fans of Metallica are the ones who understand and respect what we're doing," Ulrich told a group of more than 20 journalists.
The delivery of 13 boxes of user IDs listed on 60,000 sheets of paper was spawned by a lawsuit the hard-rock veterans filed last month against Napster Inc. The band charges that Napster's namesake software enables copyright violations by allowing users to trade near-CD-quality music for free without the copyright owner's permission.
Napster promised to terminate the accounts of people illegally trading Metallica MP3s if the band identified them. Ulrich turned in the user IDs of 335,435 Napster users, which Metallica gathered through the services of a tracking company called NetPD.
Ulrich emerged from the Napster offices after about five minutes and described the meeting with company representatives as friendly.
Meanwhile, protesters nearby implied that Metallica are being controlled by the music industry, holding a banner that read "RIAA = Master of Puppets." The Recording Industry Association of America filed its own copyright suit against Napster last year.
Another group calling itself "Ex-metallicafans.com" had to break a collection of Metallica CDs by hand after police confiscated their sledgehammer.
The band contends the Napster users on its list illegally traded Metallica songs online by using Napster Inc.'s popular MP3-trading software.
"The true fans of Metallica are the ones who understand and respect what we're doing," Ulrich told a group of more than 20 journalists.
The delivery of 13 boxes of user IDs listed on 60,000 sheets of paper was spawned by a lawsuit the hard-rock veterans filed last month against Napster Inc. The band charges that Napster's namesake software enables copyright violations by allowing users to trade near-CD-quality music for free without the copyright owner's permission.
Napster promised to terminate the accounts of people illegally trading Metallica MP3s if the band identified them. Ulrich turned in the user IDs of 335,435 Napster users, which Metallica gathered through the services of a tracking company called NetPD.
Ulrich emerged from the Napster offices after about five minutes and described the meeting with company representatives as friendly.
Meanwhile, protesters nearby implied that Metallica are being controlled by the music industry, holding a banner that read "RIAA = Master of Puppets." The Recording Industry Association of America filed its own copyright suit against Napster last year.
Another group calling itself "Ex-metallicafans.com" had to break a collection of Metallica CDs by hand after police confiscated their sledgehammer.
