Metallica Accuses 335,435 Napster Users

The heavy metal band, which is suing music-trading company Napster for what they say are copyright infringements, says it has found the identifications of over 335,000 individuals allegedly sharing the band's songs online. The band's attorneys plan to deliver 60,000 pages of documents to the software company, asking for the users to be blocked from the service.

"I don't know if it's going to put a chill on the user end, but it certainly is going to show other artists what they can do to get their work out of Napster," stated Howard King, the Los Angeles attorney who represents Metallica and Dr. Dre, who is also suing Napster.

Napster has refused to remove specific artists' content from its service many times, stating that the software is only a portal for the users who are trading the files. However, Napster agreed to eject users who were found trading copyrighted materials.

Metallica is scheduled to chat with fans online tomorrow at Artistsdirect.com to explain its fight against Napster.