Napster Retaliates Against Metallica Fans

In the wake of a court ruling against it, Napster, Inc. has banned some of its subscribers from the Napster Web site, and has taken steps to thwart their work-around efforts to get back in.

One of the major flaws in the ban was that a person who had been banned under one name could re-register at the Napster site under a different name. Napster then issued a new version of its music-sharing software designed to prevent this from happening.

However, some subscribers were reported to have figured out a way around the ban and posted this info on a Napster message board. Napster responded by threatening to block any subscriber who posted this information. Napster said that person's IP (Internet Protocol) address would be logged and the individual's account with Napster would be closed if they tried to do it again.

Dan Wood, a Napster spokesperson is quoted as saying in a published report, "Napster is taking its obligations very seriously ... and hope(s) users will take this as seriously as they (Napster) do." Wood is also was reported as saying that Napster has a policy of removing any user posts to its message boards that are related to working around the Metallica-related user blocks.

Napster, which provides subscribers with downloadable software that allows them to store, play, and swap MP3-formatted music, was sued recently by the hard rock group Metallica for copyright infringement. The basis of the music artists' claim was that Napster's software allowed for the unauthorized (non-compensated) copying and playing of their music.

Napster said that it was not infringing. Instead, Napster asserted that it was similar to an ISP (Internet service provider) and that it was not responsible for the actions of its subscribers. Napster also said that it has a copyright violation warning posted on its Web site and that Napster would remove the name of any person from its user list found to be in violation of an artist's copyright.

A United States District Court ruled a week ago that Napster was not exempt, as matter of law, from liability for copyright infringement merely due to Napster's business model, and refused to dismiss Metallica's suit against Napster.

Prior to the court's ruling, Metallica had delivered a list of over 300,000 names to Napster claiming that each of the names represented a person who was infringing upon Metallica-copyrighted music.

On Tuesday, after the court's ruling was made public, Napster blocked the names given to it by Metallica from using Napster's Web site.

Another threat to Metallica's efforts to prevent the unauthorized copying and sharing of its music is a new Web site called "Metallicaster," which claims that it will offer newly engineered software that will do the same thing as Napster's software. The Metallicaster Web site also says that this software was specifically developed for the purpose of spreading Metallica's music.

Newsbytes has been monitoring the Napster Web site after the user ban was announced and found that more than 100 Metallica files, many of them apparent bootlegs, are available for download.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.