Band: 300,000 Napster Users Broke Copyright

Heavy-metal band Metallica, currently embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit against software maker Napster, on Wednesday delivered to the San Mateo, Calif., firm 13 boxes of documents with the names of more than 300,000 Napster users who it claimed are violating copyright law by sharing the band’s music online. Napster has found itself at the center of the digital music debate since it released software that allows users to search online for songs stored in the popular MP3 format and download them directly from each others’ computers.

A Napster spokesman said it will “take the appropriate actions to disable the users Metallica has identified” if the information is valid and the complaints are deemed legitimate violations. But even if Napster revokes the user access of these Metallica fans, technology experts say that nothing prevents these fans from re-registering with Napster under new identities.

The lawsuit has evoked outrage among the online music community and many fans of the heavy metal band. In a telling response to the complaint, which Metallica filed in April, a joke Web site is raising money from online users who have downloaded the heavy metal band’s songs. The site, https://www.paylars.com, named after Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, purports to have raised a mere $211 in credit card donations and promises to send the money to the band in the next couple of weeks. “It started off as a joke, but people really are sending money,” said Mark Erickson, president of August Nelson, a San Francisco-based start-up that launched the site. “We’re getting thousands of e-mails from fans who are angry at the band.”

Napster currently is facing additional copyright infringement lawsuits filed by rapper Dr. Dre and the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the trade group that represents the nation’s five largest record conglomerates.