LARS GRASSES UP 335,000 NAPSTER FANS dotmusic.com Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich will be making an unusual personal appearance tomorrow... at Napsteršs offices in San Mateo, California. The band's lawyers have revealed that they employed NetPD, an Internet consulting company, to compile a list of over 335,000 individuals who have been distributing Metallica's material via Napster. According to management Q Prime, over 1.4 million files of 95 Metallica songs were available via Napster over the weekend. Ulrich is to deliver to the software company more than 60,000 documents cataloguing these alleged infractions. "We're giving them what they asked for," said Gayle Fine, a spokesperson at Q Prime, referring to Napster's promise to ban individual copyright infringers. She confirmed that the band had chosen to exclude 38,000 fans who used Napster to swap bootleg live recordings. But under Napster's membership system, subscribers are not obliged to give real names or addresses. It is also quick and easy for a user to change alias and create a new identity. So even if Napster do ban the users specified by Metallica, traders will most likely re-appear under different screen names. Tracking down offenders' actual names for legal purposes could therefore prove a mammoth chore. Q Prime's data shows that the most popular Metallica tracks across Napster over the weekend were "Nothing Else Matters" with 73,772 users sharing, "Enter Sandman" with 72,257 users and "No Leaf Clover" with 59, 842 users. If nothing else this proves that Napster could be invaluable to artists as an instant and interactive market research device. Meanwhile, the band are going head-to-head with fans today at chat.yahoo.com. They will comment on Paylars.com, an ironic site which offers to reimburse Metallica for lost earnings and explain the Napster case, which they reportedly describe as a "...very complicated issue with larger implications that our fans may not completely understand." 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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