NEWS ROOM

You are viewing a single news story. You can see more.

2000-04-13 ANOTHER LAW SUIT [link]
Elektra posted the following press release today:

Metallica Files Suit Against Napster, The University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University

Suit alleges that Defendants have violated the law by committing continuing copyright infringements, unlawful use of digital audio interface device, and violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

New York, NY -- Internationally renowned recording artists Metallica, E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music have today filed suit in U.S District Court Central District of California against Napster, Inc., The University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University.

Metallica, E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music are the copyright owners of sound recordings and musical compositions created by Metallica and possess the exclusive right to commercially distribute these songs and sound recordings and derive income therefrom.

The suit alleges that Napster and the other defendants - by encouraging and enabling visitors to its website to unlawfully exchange with others copyrighted songs and sound recordings without the knowledge or permission of Metallica - have violated the law by committing continuing copyright infringements, unlawful use of digital audio interface device, and violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Says Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, "With each project, we go through a grueling creative process to achieve music that we feel is representative of Metallica at that very moment in our lives. We take our craft -whether it be the music, the lyrics, or the photos and artwork- very seriously, as do most artists. It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is. From a business standpoint, this is about piracy- a/k/a taking something that doesn't belong to you; and that is morally and legally wrong. The trading of such information -whether it's music, videos, photos, or whatever- is, in effect, trafficking in stolen goods."

Further the suit states that, "Napster has devised and distributed software whose sole purpose is to permit Napster to profit by abetting and encouraging the pirating of the creative efforts of the world's most admired and successful musical artists. Facilitating that effort are the hypocritical universities and colleges who could easily block this insidious and on going thievery scheme. The last link in the chain are the end users of the stolen musical works, students of these universities and others who exhibit the moral fiber of common looters loading up shopping carts because "everybody else is doing it."

Metallica released their first album, Kill'em All, in 1983, and since that time have released 9 albums including 2 double albums. They have won 5 Grammy Awards and have sold more than 50 million albums through normal retail channels in the United States alone. Their 1991 album Metallica with sales of over 12 million copies is the 3rd largest selling album since the inception of Soundscan (the company which provides accurate sales information for the music industry) and continues to sell close to a million copies a year.

There was 1 match

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail us at webmaster@ipom.com.