“Napster intends to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and it takes those obligations seriously Napster will review the over 300,000 fan names that Metallica turned in as soon as possible. If the claims are submitted properly, the company will take the appropriate actions to disable the users Metallica has identified. Of course, if the band would provide the names in computerized form, rather than in tens of thousands of pages of paper intended to create a photo opp, that would expedite the process.” 

“It is important to understand that Napster does not itself make available any MP3 materials over the Internet. Napster merely provides computer software that allows its users to choose which files to make available to each other, and which files to download. As we told Metallica’s lawyer on April 20, Napster is able to respond to claims of copyright infringement by disabling the access of identified users, not by excluding particular songs or artists.  So the upshot of Metallica’s notice may be to prevent its fans from using Napster at all.” 

Napster founder, Shawn Fanning, also released a statement on Thurday - "I'm a huge Metallica fan and therefore really sorry that they're going this direction. If we got the opportunity to explain to the band why Napster exists and why fans enjoy Napster, perhaps we could bring all of this to a peaceful conclusion. Napster respects the role of artists and is very interested in working with Metallica and the music industry to develop a workable model that is fair to everyone while unleashing the power of the Internet to build enthusiasm for music."

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