Napster Makes Good on Promise to
Metallica
Care to wager a guess as to who's winning in
the Metallica/Napster game of
one-upmanship? There may be no right
answer. The Northern California-based music
software company complied with one of the
metal band's demands this week and blocked
more than 300,000 users from its site because
of their alleged copyright violations.
"Napster has taken extraordinary steps to
comply with Metallica's demands to block
hundreds of thousands of its fans from using
the Napster system," says Napster attorney
Laurence Pulgram. "Napster has always
stated that it would act in response to notice
from copyright holders, and it has lived up to
that commitment in good faith."
Essentially, Metallica's victory has been in
coercing Napster into enforcing its copyright
regulations, an aspect of the company that
had received only cursory attention until recent
weeks. But the cost of that victory remains
uncertain, as Metallica, in their efforts to battle
the company, have so far only managed to
punish their Napster-using fans.
"Extraordinary steps? Napster did exactly
what their own policy said they would do," said
Gayle Fine of Q Prime, Metallica's
management company. "We gave them these
user IDs based on their asking for them. This
shows that artists can get results when they
stand up for what's right, and not be
intimidated by corporations. Once again, they
made it about Metallica and their fans, and
this is about Metallica versus Napster. It's
about us doing what's morally and legally
correct, and what we are entitled to do as
owners of copyright. If you go to Napster you
can still access Metallica masters. This will
continue."
According to a company statement, Napster
has not disclosed any personal information
about the users in question, only their
"user-names," and those who feel they were
unfairly blocked from the system may submit
a request for reinstatement.
A larger-scale battle looms, as Napster lost a
summary judgement hearing late last week. A
California judge ruled that the company was
not a "mere conduit" as Napster has argued,
but rather an active contributor to music
piracy.
ANDREW DANSBY and JAAN UHELSZKI
(May 11, 2000)
