Napster is losing the battle against the RIAA... at least for the moment. On Wednesday, a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco granted a temporary injunction against Napster at the request of the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA won a temporary injunction against Napster, forcing the company to remove all copyrighted material from its service by midnight (PT) Friday pending a trial this fall. Napster does plan to appeal the ruling and intends to ask the Court on Thursday to stay the judge's order. The fall trial will be to determine whether Napster is violating copyright law by directing users to songs that can be downloaded from MP3 files, a charge made by the RIAA in its suit against the tech company. "We are pleased with the Court's decision," RIAA senior executive vice president Cary Sherman said in a statement. "This decision will pave the way for the future of on-line music. This once again establishes that the rules of the road are the same on-line as they are off-line and sends a strong message to others that they cannot build a business based on others' copyrighted works without permission.... Now that Napster's management understands that they need the authorization of copyright owners to engage in their business, we hope that they will work with the record companies to devise innovative ways to use their technology for legitimate purposes with permission."
From Metal Edge: METALLICA has changed the venues for the make-up dates previously announced for the shows it had to miss due to JAMES HETFIELD's back injury. The canceled concerts in Dallas, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, and Sparta, Kentucky will now take place in Dallas on August 2-3 at the Starplex Amphitheater, Atlanta on August 5-6 at the Lakewood Amphitheater and Lexington, Kentucky at the Rupp Arena on August 8-9, with an opening act to be announced. Visit www.metallica.com for details on exchanging ticket stubs for new tickets to these shows.
JESSE JAMES DUPREE, lead singer for JACKYL, and currently supporting Foot Fetish, will be featured on tonight's Later Tonight on NBC, hosted by CYNTHIA GARRETT.
BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, a testament to old-school hard rock, played their first show at the Dragonfly in Hollywood. They start pre-production next week on a debut disc for Warner Bros.The band features vocalist JOE LeSTÉ, guitarist D.J. ASHBA. Bassist KENNY KWEENS and drummer DANNY PARKER played together in SHAKE THE FAITH and No. 9, and ANTHONY FOCX was known as a drummer prior to this--he's moved to rhythm guitar.
FREDDY CURCI, formerly of ALIAS, will be releasing a Greatest Hits package via EMI Canada on August 1st. It's titled Then and Now, and will feature a few unreleased Alias tracks.
