Putting Napster To Sleep

Napster, the mother of all music softwares, is facing a ban. But it isn’t
going down without a fight. CHITRA SUBRAMANYAM finds out more
about the anti-Metallica, pro-Napster game

Free music. Who wouldn’t sell their soul for it? Especially when it concerns MP3 music. But look at what happened. Napster, soul-food software of music lovers all over the world, caught Metallica and Dr Dre on one of those bad-hair days. Result: it’s facing a ban, even after a stay-order from the courts. Now, though the downloading continues, music enthusiasts all over the world live in fear — one day Napster might be no more.
For those wondering what the fuss is all about, here’s the take on the Napster vs Metallica case. Some time last year, after painfully logging on to the Internet and surfing your way through bad sites, you finally got an MP3 site that had that song you’d been looking for. But it took you forever to download thanks to all those broken links and ftp server passwords. Then along came a little programme called Napster. Sharing and caring was its password and no, it didn’t have MP3 files stored in its servers. It was more of a search engine which sifted through MP3 files that existed on computers of individual Napster users. It was a dream software. But concerned by these developments, and of course, the software’s growing popularity, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Napster. Joining them were Metallica and Dr Dre who slapped copyright infringement lawsuits. The reason: Napster allows easy trading (free) of copyright-protected music. Not only that, it also allows distribution of music from unknown bands looking for that million-dollar contract to bootlegs of concerts.

But if you thought Napster would go down without a fight, you have a surprise coming. For sites are mushrooming all over the Internet supporting this heaven-sent software — metallicaisgreedy.com, killmetallica.com or BoycottMetallica.org — complete with facts, opinions and figures. And even though other popular groups like Dr Dre have supported Metallica, it is this heavy metal band which is facing the wrath of fans all over the world. Lars Ulrich, one of the band members, also has a number of sites devoted to him — ScrewLars.com, PayLarstoShutUp.com, and a few others laced with profanities. And get this: zeropaid.com has received more than 10,000 anti-Metallica letters from fans all over the world. But the Metallica-lover turned into a Metallica-hater only after the band (in conjunction with Dr Dre) handed over more than 600,000 names of people downloading their music.

But in this fight for survival, Napster.com isn’t far behind. The site has regular updates on the latest from the courtroom and has also listed different ways in which a Napster supporter can help. You can ‘‘write to the heads of major record companies and tell them that you are their best customers and that you don’t want them to kill Napster’’ — a request that comes with a link to their addresses. The site also urges the user to show ‘‘your power’’ by calling for a positive ‘‘buy-cott’’, that is, support the artists who support Napster by going out and buying their CDs.
And even as the fight continues — in the courtroom and on the Internet — one fan on an anti-Metallica site sums up, ‘‘I just don’t get it. Years ago, we would record songs from the radio on to tapes. That wasn’t copyright infringement. And we are doing the same with Napster. It’s file-sharing. No one’s making money out of it.’’

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