“ Sad But True ”: Why Metallica ’ s Fans Continue to Fail Them ( and Not Vice Versa ) Twenty Years After the Napster Lawsuit
stantaneous success , boasting over 70 million users�a feat that is still documented in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest-growing business ever to have existed ( Nieva ). That is , until Metallica�mostly led by Ulrich�caught wind of the website and , along with rapper Dr . Dre , who would later file a similar lawsuit against Napster , effectively laid the copyright-gobbling monster to rest .
METALLICA SLAYS THE BEAST OF NAPSTER
Fed up with the P2P practice in general , and particularly upset because one of its unfinished and unreleased demo songs , “ I Disappear ,” was found being played on the radio due to a leak that was traced back to Napster , Metallica sued the popular company in a US District Court in the Northern District of California in 2000 . Alleging a host of federal statutory claims , including copyright infringement and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ( RICO ) Act for ongoing criminal activities , the members of Metallica would be the first artists ( as opposed to corporate record labels ) to take a legal stand against file sharing . Almost twenty years later , whether Metallica would come out the winner or loser in this “ Goliath vs . Goliath ” battle is still a matter of debate .
After Metallica won a preliminary ruling nearly a year into the lawsuit , which led to a court order compelling Napster to remove all of the band ’ s songs from its site pending the outcome of the suit , it appeared that the district court was heading in a direction that would predict ultimate success for the band on the legal merits . Further , because Metallica had alleged damages in its complaint for $ 10 million ( essentially a rate of $ 100,000 per illegally downloaded song ), Napster found itself between rock-n-roll and a hard place and , thus , decided to settle with Metallica and Dr . Dre . Among other
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