...And Justice For All

The Wrath of Metallica

Back in 2000 Metallica became the first music group (albeit a metal one) to bring music piracy to the public eye. The case was against online p2p network juggernaut Napster, which at the time had millions of users trading music amongst each other. The RIAA sent numerous “cease and desist” orders to schools and universities informing them of copyright infringement on their private servers, and threatened to sue if compliance had not been met. Now what’s interesting about this case is the ownership laws were subject to much debate. Herein the laws could be interpreted in many ways depending on the court’s interpretation.

In other words if a product is purchased (such as CD) whom does the responsibility of the ownership lie in. The person who bought the CD, the person who borrowed the CD from a friend or Metallica?

From a Metallica standpoint the band stated that an album is a result of certain dedication and months/years of work, in other words it is a commodity or as Lars Ulrich put it “an artform” and that by downloading or even swapping a CD is taking something that doesn’t in fact belong to you. By doing this you are in fact “trafficking stolen goods”

The bigger picture in which Metallica failed to see was that there was no references in the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act covering digital media, as this is at the time was a more updated modern form of copying music. This included Cd Burners, Mp3 players and encoders.

From a user/fan point of view they felt entitled to download as much FREE music as their bandwidths could allow. Fans of Metallica were outraged and disgusted that their means of free music was shut off and would now have to pay this definitely not starving band money again. Unfortunately for Metallica, the users and fans will always find new ways of acquiring music or band merchandise for free.

Metallica and Napster reached an undisclosed settlement ($$$) and the court ordered the termination of Napster and two years later in 2002 Napster had to liquidate its assets and filed for Bankruptcy. Napster was Dead. However this wasn’t to be the end of this legal ordeal...

Shortly after the court trial, Metallica unleashed a crusade of lawyers on some 330,000 Napster users with the intent to Kill Em All. This was due to a violation of copyright laws via means of illegally possessing digital media. Now this move by Metallica was very bold, potentially trimming the fat off their fan base and maybe crossing a few violations of privacy laws along the way.

An online net consultancy firm was hired by the band to track the users down and collect information on them which totalled a 60,000 page court document. While this is no laughing matter, the fact that this mp3 police agency would of had to accept Napster’s user privacy policy (legally binding user agreement) is. Surprisingly there was no counter sue.

Metallica really has every right to stop the trading of music that they aren’t seeing a profit on. But then again so did every other artist on Napster whose music was being traded “illegally.” (I’m taking a blind guess and assuming Metallica wasn’t the only artist on Napster). With Metallica squeezing every last drop out of Napster, what is left for the other artists who were also hard done by. With a band as successful as Metallica it just seems like pure gluttony to pursue this case to the astonishing extent they did. Also, why harm the otherwise clean and respectable reputation of the band and its dedicated fan base. Surely Metallica had a lot more to lose than gain from this situation.

In the digital age laws will have to become increasingly up to date in order to cover technological advances in our societies. The issue of copyright online is no longer black or white as this case has proven. Whether or not this would be considered illegal in other countries is up for debate and the relevance of this case can still be influential in determining future lawsuits against the countless mp3 breeding grounds that still remain.

Well this may of not killed Metallica... but St. Anger certainly did.