History: - On 13 April 2000, Metallica filed a lawsuit aginst Napster. - Napster is a very popular software that allows Internet users to share their music files. - Metallica is the first group to fight for the music privacy. - Metallica filed suit in U.S. District Court naming Napster, and several schools - University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University - Bucknell University sources say the school is the most recent to terminate Napster, using firewall-based security systems to block its connection. - Metallica provided serval screen names of those Napster users that download Metallica Songs, and asked Napster to ban those accounts. Metallica's point: - "If you're not fortunate enough to own a computer, there's only one way to assemble a music collection the equivalent of a Napster user's: theft. Walk into a record store, grab what you want and walk out. The difference is that the familiar phrase a computer user hears, "File's done," is replaced by another familiar phrase-"You're under arrest." - I don't have a problem with any artist voluntarily distributing his or her songs through any means the artist elects-- at no cost to the consumer, if that's what the artist wants. But just like a carpenter who crafts a table gets to decide whether to keep it, sell it or give it away , shouldn't we have the same options? ( Metallica members have already said they love the idea of the MP3 format and they don't mind letting their fans have free downloads of their music. But THEY want to control which setting the MP3's are presented in. ) - We typically employ a record producer, recording engineers, programmers, assistants and, occasionally, other musicians. We rent time for months at recording studios .... and contribute to our economy. Every time a Napster enthusiast downloads a song, it takes money from the pockets of all these members of the creative community.