Metallica, along with E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music -- all copyright owners of sound recordings and musical compositions created by the veteran hard rock outfit -- jointly filed suit against Napster, Inc., the University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University today
(April 13).
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court Central District of California, alleges the co-defendants committed continuing copyright infringements, made unlawful use of a digital audio interface device, and committed violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The suit states that "Napster has devised and distributed software whose sole purpose is to permit Napster to profit by abetting and encouraging the pirating of the creative efforts of the world's most admired and successful musical artists. Facilitating that effort are the hypocritical universities and colleges who could easily block this insidious and ongoing thievery scheme. The last link in the chain are the end users of the stolen musical works, students of these universities and others who exhibit the moral fiber of common looters loading up shopping carts because 'everybody else is doing it.' "
"With each project, we go through a grueling creative process to achieve music that we feel is representative of Metallica at that very moment in our lives," drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement. "We take our craft -- whether it be the music, the lyrics, or the photos and artwork -- very seriously, as do most artists. It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is.
"From a business standpoint, this is about piracy -- a.k.a. taking something that doesn't belong to you; and that is morally and legally wrong. The trading of such information -- whether it's music, videos, photos, or whatever -- is, in effect, trafficking in stolen goods."
The Recording Industry Association Of America is also suing Napster for copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel canceled Monday's scheduled court date between attorneys for both sides, and a new date has not been set, according to a spokesman for the RIAA.
RIAA Digital Performance Rights Coalition director John Simson and Napster co-founder Sean Parker were on hand for a panel discussion Tuesday about the issue on the Indiana University campus. IU shut down student access to Napster in February after traffic overwhelmed its Internet server. Access was reinstated in late March after the university implemented methods to scale back the server load to reasonable levels.
Napster could not be reached for comment at deadline. Representatives of Yale and Indiana had not yet seen the suit and could not comment.
(April 13).
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court Central District of California, alleges the co-defendants committed continuing copyright infringements, made unlawful use of a digital audio interface device, and committed violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The suit states that "Napster has devised and distributed software whose sole purpose is to permit Napster to profit by abetting and encouraging the pirating of the creative efforts of the world's most admired and successful musical artists. Facilitating that effort are the hypocritical universities and colleges who could easily block this insidious and ongoing thievery scheme. The last link in the chain are the end users of the stolen musical works, students of these universities and others who exhibit the moral fiber of common looters loading up shopping carts because 'everybody else is doing it.' "
"With each project, we go through a grueling creative process to achieve music that we feel is representative of Metallica at that very moment in our lives," drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement. "We take our craft -- whether it be the music, the lyrics, or the photos and artwork -- very seriously, as do most artists. It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is.
"From a business standpoint, this is about piracy -- a.k.a. taking something that doesn't belong to you; and that is morally and legally wrong. The trading of such information -- whether it's music, videos, photos, or whatever -- is, in effect, trafficking in stolen goods."
The Recording Industry Association Of America is also suing Napster for copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel canceled Monday's scheduled court date between attorneys for both sides, and a new date has not been set, according to a spokesman for the RIAA.
RIAA Digital Performance Rights Coalition director John Simson and Napster co-founder Sean Parker were on hand for a panel discussion Tuesday about the issue on the Indiana University campus. IU shut down student access to Napster in February after traffic overwhelmed its Internet server. Access was reinstated in late March after the university implemented methods to scale back the server load to reasonable levels.
Napster could not be reached for comment at deadline. Representatives of Yale and Indiana had not yet seen the suit and could not comment.
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