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1 Ent. L. 1 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/entersport1 and id is 1 raw text is: Metallica and Morality: The Rhetorical Battleground of the Napster Wars LEE MARSHALL This article discusses the rhetoric of the highly publicised Napster legal cases, arguing that it is firmly based in the aesthetic and moral implications of copyright infringement. To contextualise current trends historically, the paper summarises insights from recent work analysing the importance of Romanticism to an understanding of contemporary copyright practice. Utilising this theoretical background, the article highlights the importance of the Romantic separation of art and commerce for the recording industry 's anti-piracy campaigns. This enables the industry to centre current rhetoric concerning Napster on artists rather than on commercial interests. This turns copyright infringement into not only an aesthetic crime, but also into a moral one. The article argues that the only way the recording industry can prevent substantial online piracy is by creating and winning a moral argument. However, it concludes that the industry is currently unsuccessful in this aim and offers some reasons for this, themselves predicated upon the Romantic separation of art and market. On 13 April 2000 in the US District Court, central district of California, the rock group Metallica filed a lawsuit against the then internet startup company Napster. The suit accused Napster of 'contributory and vicarious copyright infringement', as well as violating the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organisations Act, for enabling its users to exchange copyrighted MP3 files.' On the day of the suit, the band's apparent spokesman, drummer Lars Ulrich, released a press statement which contained the following: It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is. This quote is, I think, supremely interesting. Not only does it contain centuries-old ideology regarding the relationship between art and the market, but it also provides the key to understanding the rhetorical battleground upon which the Napster Wars are being fought. It is this battleground that concerns the current paper. In particular, it discusses how, Lee Marshall is a lecturer in sociology at University College Worcester where he specialises in intellectual property and popular music. Entertainment Law, Vol.1, No.l, Spring 2002, pp.1 19 PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON

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