Napster, facing a new judge's order that could permanently muzzle its embattled song-swap service, has announced it has settled two major copyright infringement lawsuits brought by hard rockers Metallica and rap artist Dr. Dre.
"I think we've resolved this in a way that works for fans, recording artists and songwriters alike," Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich said in a statement announcing the deal which gives the group final say over which song files can be traded over the Napster system.
"Our beef hasn't been with the concept of sharing music," Ulrich said. "The problem we had with Napster was that they never asked us or other artists if we wanted to participate in their business."
The two settlements came one day after US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel delivered what some industry analysts say could be a final, fatal blow to Napster -- ordering it not to resume service until its new system for filtering out copyrighted material is 100 percent effective.
Patel in March issued a preliminary injunction against Napster, requiring it to block song files that are covered by music industry copyright.
Napster voluntarily suspended file-sharing July 2 for a self-imposed shutdown as it battled technical glitches related to its latest upgrade, intended to help it comply with Patel's order.
At a closed-door hearing, Napster's lawyers told Patel they were confident the new filters were "99 percent effective" and the service was ready to resume operations. But they admitted that a "very limited number" of copyrighted songs still made it through -- prompting Patel to order Napster to remain out of business rather than risk more copyright violations.
Napster Chief Executive Hank Barry, saying Patel's order "threatens all peer-to-peer file sharing over the Internet," vowed to appeal the ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a court which has ruled against Napster in the past.
BOYCOTT METALLICA AND DR.DRE...HAVEN'T THEY GOT ENOUGH OF OUR MONEY ALREADY? DID NAPSTER OR ITS FOUNDER MAKE MONEY FROM THEM> THEY ONLY ENABLED INTERNET "FRIENDS" TO DO THE SAME AS YOU WOULD WITH ORDINARY FRIENDS, SHARE MUSIC, NOT MAKE PROFITS. THIS HAS GONE WAY TOO FAR, WAKE UP GUYS AND SMELL THE COFFEE, IT WILL BE THE WAY OF THE FUTURE!!