A company called Napster was developed. This company encouraged piracy by enabling and allowing its users to trade copyrighted songs through its servers. Metallica discovered that a demo of their new song was going around the network, before it wasn’t even released because of this.

Metallica filed a law suit against the company, Napster. They stated that the company was violating three areas of the law. These include, copyright infringements, unlawful use of digital audio interface device, and the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The District Court ordered Napster to monitor the activities of its network and to block access to infringing material when notified of that material's location. Napster was unable to do this and shut down its service in July Napster finally declared itself bankrupt in 2002 and sold its assets. It had already been offline since the previous year owing to the effect of the court rulings.

Yes, I do agree that it was right for Metallica to file a law suit against Napster. It’s hard for bands to get a steady income, and this company made it even harder for them. It would be like a person going into a

In 2000 Napster was good for artists who have not signed any major labels, and allows their music to be heard, which may improve the sale of their music in the long run. The case with Napster caused other companies to think of new ways to make money rather then off of other people, and made them take a hard look at how we view copyright.