Popular Culture Review 30.2
terms , Napster agreed to block access to all songs by artists who opted out of distributing their music via P2P , essentially reconfiguring its working model in order to conform to the legal rules of copyright law . The backstory behind the settlement was that Napster had fully expected at the time of settlement to seal another deal with the media giant Bertlesmann AG , which would purchase and run the company legitimately and in accordance with the specific terms agreed upon by Metallica and Dr . Dre . That deal eventually fell through , and Napster filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy soon thereafter ( Zaleski ).
Although this turn of events would seem like a win / win for Metallica , the real hell was just about to begin for the band . To say that followers of Metallica pre-Napster were hard-core fans would be an understatement . As it turned out , however , even the most steadfast fans proved their disloyalty when it comes to preventing their ability to download music for free . Perceiving the band members to have “ sold out ” to big money and corporate interests , millions of metalheads rallied against Metallica ’ s decision to sue and effectively shut down the fledgling file-sharing website . Several felt that their past monetary support of the band , including previous album purchases , concert tickets , and merchandising sales , had somehow given them carte blanche to receive Metallica ’ s new songs and albums for free ( Simon ), despite the fact that such practices were stealing from artists the royalties to which they were entitled , both legally and ethically . One online music company went so far as to set up a website called PayLars . com that allowed fans to donate money in order to make up for the revenue the band “ thought it was losing ” to online trading ; even fellow metal band Mötley Crüe jumped on the bandwagon by creating an anti-Metallica video mocking the lawsuit called “ Metalligreed ” ( Zaleski ).
6