Napster Sued
"They have conceived a business that is based on (copyright) infringement."
(Russell Frackman, RIAA attorney, to Associated Press, March 28, 2000)
"(Napster is) trying in a PR-way to make Metallica the bad guys in the eyes of
our fans, and that's what pisses us off even more. This is about piracy and
that is morally and legally wrong."
(Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich to rollingstone.com, April 14 and May 4, 2000)
"I don't like people stealing my music."
(Dr. Dre to rollingstone.com, after filing a lawsuit against Napster, April
27, 2000)
"That Napster s- -t, if that gets any bigger, it could kill the whole purpose
of making music. It's not just about the money.... I've seen those little
sissies on TV, talking about (how) 'The working people should just get music
for free.' I've been a working person. I never could afford a computer, but
I always bought and supported the artists that I liked. ...If you can afford
a computer, you can afford to pay $16 for my CD."
(Eminem to writer Gary Graff, wallofsound.com, May 17, 2000)
In December 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a
lawsuit against Napster in which it accused the company of encouraging its
software users and computer servers to trade copyrighted music online without
the owners' permission. Napster, based in San Mateo, California and founded
by two college students, provides a free software application whereby users
who are logged on to the Internet simultaneously can download MP3 music files
from each other free of charge. Napster, which is popular with college
students, overloads university networks throughout the U.S., with an estimated
1 million hits a day. About 100 universities around North America had to ban
or restrict use of Napster to keep their Internet lines from becoming clogged
by people trading music.
The RIAA is seeking $100,000 for each work infringed and preliminary and
permanent injunctions against further copyright infringement by Napster.
On April 14, Metallica became the first recording act to take legal action
against Napster. The band, along with E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music,
filed a $10 million copyright-infringement and racketeering lawsuit against
the company and three universities that provide access to the company's
swapping software: University of Southern California, Indiana University and
Yale University. Two weeks after the launch of the Metallica lawsuit, Dr.
Dre's record label, Aftermath Entertainment, filed a suit against Napster when
it refused to delete his tracks from their directory.
The lawsuits are taking a toll on universities that had turned a blind eye to
students' use of Napster. In late April, Yale University banned the software
from its servers. In response, Metallica dropped Yale from its lawsuit. The
University of Southern California followed with an announcement that it would
only permit access to Napster on its server for "legal purposes from
designated University personal computers and under University supervision."
The Metallica lawsuit caused a backlash from fans, which prompted the group to
respond to them in an online net chat in early May.
(Read a transcript of the live chat: http://www.artistdirect.com/metallica/ )
Metallica's attorneys hired NetPD, an online-consulting firm, to monitor the
Napster service. The firm came up with 335,435 individual users who had made
the band's content available online. The band stressed to fans that, despite
collecting names of Napster users who were trading Metallica MP3s online, its
fight is strictly with Napster. The list of Metallica song-traders was
personally hand-delivered to Napster by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
Recently Napster agreed to review the names presented to them by Metallica and
banned those fans from its site who allegedly traded songs by the band.
"Napster intends to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and it
takes those obligations seriously," said a Napster attorney. Despite
Napster's concessions, the band has not dropped its lawsuit. U.S. District
Judge Patel ruled that Napster is not entitled to "safe harbor" under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act and can be liable for monetary damages.
Legal analysts contend that Napster's strategy to use the contributory
infringement defense (or the "Betamax defense") is weak. Read an overview of
this argument:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/cyber/cyberlaw/12law.html
Read more about the "Betamax defense" (Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios,
Inc.): http://laws.findlaw.com/us/464/417.html
Napster Can Be Monetarily Liable; Findlaw News, May 9, 2000
Point Your Browser Tip:
http://news.findlaw.com/news/s/20000508/napsterliability.html
On a Related Note...Latest Internet Freeware Creates Pirating Bonanza
Gnutella, the latest freeware program on the Internet, can be downloaded in
minutes and is much more pernicious than Napster. Gnutella users can log on,
type in a search word, and download from each other's hard drives whatever is
being offered, whether or not that information is copyrighted. Unlike
Napster, Gnutella searches go through no central server, so there are no
Internet addresses from which the universities or recording companies, for
example, can block access. It is a vast and ever-changing network of users.
Mercury.com Center, April 10, 2000; Main site index: http://www.mercurycenter.com/
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