DEFYING METALLICA dotmusic.com Flouting demands made by hard rockers Metallica, the University of Southern California (USC) has continued to allow Napster's use on campus. USC, along with Yale University and Indiana University, was sued on April 13 by Metallica, who alleged that the schools were encouraging piracy through the MP3-sharing application. Yale and Indiana, who moved quickly to ban students from using Napster, have since been removed from Metallica's case. It is rumoured that the band is instead adding the names of individual students who they see as piracy ringleaders. The USC's lawyer Carol Mauch said that the school "will now permit its students to access Napster...", but "...only for demonstrably legal purposes from designated university personal computers and under university supervision." Connection to Napster from students' dormitories, for example, would be made impossible. This slightly restricted approach will continue until "the legality of Napster use can be clarified." Mauch countered, however, that the Napster software includes capabilities "which are clearly legal, such as the chat rooms focused on various styles of music". The Napster litigation will not be an open-and-shut case for Metallica and their attorney Howard King. On the one hand, King has hinted that "there are going to be more lawsuits filed in the next few weeks", possibly from clients of his such as Dr. Dre, Offspring and the Smashing Pumpkins. On the other, 5-million-selling rock/rap crossover act Limp Bizkit have just joined forces with the software company, stating that "....the only people worried....are people that are really worried about their bank accounts." Attacking a university itself is considered by some to be a fruitless exercise in legal terms. As with Napster, if a university can prove in court that it is merely an Internet service provider, it cannot be held liable under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. comment on this article e-mail this to a friend start a discussion [about i-drive] writing index dotmusic index Problems? Questions? Suggestions? Contact me: mail@tobyslater.com back to top back to home page

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