05-30-00
Lars Ulrich Bites My Crank, or Why I Became Personally Involved in Metallica v. Napster...
When I first got my computer and my cable modem, I went on this mass mp3 downloading spree. My last computer was a 75mHz Pentium I with a 28.8k modem. I also had a local isp provider who apparently lived to boot my ass as much as possible. It was like a hobby for them, I'm sure. I downloaded one mp3, once. It simply took too freaking long.
With the advent of newer technology in my household, my mp3 collection swelled to over 700 songs. I don't use them for anything but making little mixes of songs to listen to while I'm online, or to try out music before I buy the cd. I am the ideal consumer. If I download a song and like it, I will download a couple more, and if I like them as well, I will go out and buy the cd. Music companies should LOVE me.
I did a search for "prodigy" once on Napster. It came up with a bunch of their music and I downloaded a few songs, just to see if I really liked them. One of these songs was a Metallica song that was called a "Prodigy remix." Whatever the hell it was, it not only sucked, but it was by Metallica, and considering their ongoing battles with Napster, I got rid of the damn thing asap. This was at least 2 months ago. So, imagine my surprise on Memorial Day when I got a nice little pop-up from Napster informing me that I had been banned from their system for being some kind of horrible Metallica pirate. I don't even LIKE Metallica. The idea that I am disallowed from using their service because Lars Ulrich has a bug up his ass about the free trade of music galls me.
I joined the "Banned from Metallica" newsgroup, and while maybe most of the people aren't the most credible, some people seem to be persecuted solely on the fact that they have Metallica songs that they burned from their own commercially-purchased cd's on their harddrives. I also found out about a neat little crack code that only required me to uninstall and reinstall Napster, run the crack, and POW, I'm back online. [Bite me Lars!] I did lose my "hot list" of users in the process, and is it just me or does the new 6.0 version of Napster also bite crank? It lies to me about songs I am looking at but claims don't exist, and it's got more annoying bells and whistles I don't want, but at least I can use it.
In summation, while I had no real stance on the whole Metallica versus Napster thing, beyond the opinion that most everyone involved were acting like a bunch of nitwits, Metallica has now earned my enmity. Don't fuck with the consumer public, Lars. You don't want pissed off pixies on your ass. Trust me.
