July 11-25th Anniversary of Lars???s Napster Testimony
On this day in 2000, Lars Ulrich, representing Metallica, appeared before the U.S. Senate to testify against ex-music streaming service Napster. They had been illegally distributing music and leaked the unreleased I Disappear demo intended to be later used in Mission: Impossible 2. The manner in which Ulrich testified and how Metallica went about the process made the event seem like a cash-grab. NetPD, a firm hired by Metallica, released a massive list of IP addresses of Napster users including their fans. As a result, over 300,000 users were banned and many were enraged. In Metallica???s documentary Some Kind of Monster, clips were shown of fans stomping on CDs, vinyls and other merchandise in various locations during the Napster boycott protests. Lars???s testimony can be found on c-span.org. The testimony and general situation was the ultimate pivotal event that turned much of Metallica???s fanbase and public view against Lars.
On this day in 2000, Lars Ulrich, representing Metallica, appeared before the U.S. Senate to testify against ex-music streaming service Napster. They had been illegally distributing music and leaked the unreleased I Disappear demo intended to be later used in Mission: Impossible 2. The manner in which Ulrich testified and how Metallica went about the process made the event seem like a cash-grab. NetPD, a firm hired by Metallica, released a massive list of IP addresses of Napster users including their fans. As a result, over 300,000 users were banned and many were enraged. In Metallica???s documentary Some Kind of Monster, clips were shown of fans stomping on CDs, vinyls and other merchandise in various locations during the Napster boycott protests. Lars???s testimony can be found on c-span.org. The testimony and general situation was the ultimate pivotal event that turned much of Metallica???s fanbase and public view against Lars.
