ContentLars Ulrich of Metallica made headlines, way too many headlines, over the past year or two regarding his comments to congress on filesharing (which helped back up the DMCA) and his band’s widely publicized lawsuit against Napster. Right or wrong in their arguments, Lars and Metallica undoubtedly did far more harm than good to their band with their stand against file-traders. The problem was that the vast majority of their fans happened, literally, to be the file-sharing demographic. The teenagers who were making their point heard that they were not willing to pay $18 for another Metallica CD sure as hell weren’t going to buy them after the drummer testified in front of congress about how the platinum selling band was getting ripped off by a bunch of punk-ass kids.
Thus this December 30th interview with Lars over at Live Daily catches one a bit off guard. In the interview, Lars is asked “do you have an opinion about the RIAA crackdown on [Napster and file-trading]“? And he responds about how the “RIAA [had] made some kind of false premonition [sic] that Metallica was supportive of the RIAA crackdown” and that “I’ve never heard myself voice support for the RIAA on their crackdown.” He concludes with the sentiment that “when somebody downloads a Metallica track, does it bother me? I can’t honestly say that it bothers me anymore. I can’t get too wound up about it, because it’s not something I control.”
Major artists (and labels) coming out against the RIAA’s crackdown is exactly what needs to happen if things are going to change. Positive news to end the year…