Napster Grounds Metallica Fans - But Will They Sneak Out?
May 11 2000
Cue up your MP3 of "Another One Bites the Dust." MP3.com and Napster gave some ground to the established music industry on Wednesday. Napster agreed to zap the accounts of users fingered by Metallica, though several loopholes might make the decision a moot point. Meanwhile, MP3.com will stop letting users access MP3 collections of major-label CD tracks by inserting the matching CDs in a computer. The next Napster challenge will probably come from Dr. Dre, who is expected to deliver a list of pirating users like Metallica did.
There are two possible escape hatches for purged Napster users. The easy one: un-install, re-install and re-register with a new username. Plenty of folks have done this already. According to LiveDaily.com, however, "Napster has since added further protection that supposedly makes getting reinstated from the same computer more difficult."
The other loophole is a bit more complicated - and risky. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a user who has been removed from a service for copyright violation can submit a legal counter-notification if he thinks he has been misidentified . Then the copyright holder can either take legal action against the user or let the ISP reinstate him. "In other words, Metallica had better prepare itself for an onslaught of legal notices from angry Napster fans," said Salon's Janelle Brown, "Will Metallica and its attorneys have the time and interest to pursue legal action against even a few hundred fans who might counterfile?" Maybe not, but they could certainly make examples of a few counterfilers to prove their point.
Anti-Napster forces uttering questionable sound bites continue to be their own worst enemy. For instance, "Metallica remains angry that its request to have its songs removed from Napster's directory was rejected and that Napster made Metallica go out and get user names," said Metallica's lawyer Howard King in a ZDNet article. If Grok understands the issue correctly, Napster doesn't have a directory - all files come from the hard drives of individual users. Surely King doesn't want to see Napster seize its users' computers and delete the offending files.
Amid all the impassioned rhetoric on both sides of the MP3 issue, Rolling Stone's David Kushner stood up for the mushy middle. He compared Napster use to lovingly creating a mix tape - which "certainly doesn't feel illegal." On the other hand, he says, this "coming out party" for music freaks is still copyright infringement. But really, if and when the Napster party gets busted, MP3s will still exist and thrive. "ree love never dies online," said Kushner, "it just moves to another site." - Jen Muehlbauer
Napster Plays Like an ISP
The Industry Standard
MP3.com Pulls Plug on Hit-Song Access
ZDNet
MyMP3.com Nixes Major Labels
Wired News
Dr. Dre to Deliver Names to Napster
ZDNet
U.S. House to Hold Hearing on Napster, MP3s
CNET
MP3.com Bows to Record Industry Pressure
CNET
Napster Throws Metallica a Curveball
Salon
Major Label Content Removed From My.MP3.Com Service
LiveDaily
Napster Heeds Metallica's Demand to Shut Out 317,377 Users
LiveDaily
MP3.com to Pull Plug on Major Label Albums
SonicNet
Napster Blocks Users Listed By Metallica
SonicNet
Napster Makes Good on Promise to Metallica
Rolling Stone
Free Love and Digital Music
Rolling Stone