Dr. Dre Contributes To Napster's Legal Woes

Following the lead of the Recording Industry Association of America and Metallica, Dr. Dre has filed a $10 million copyright infringement suit against the file-trading website Napster. An attorney for the hip-hop artist and producer threatened to sue the company if it didn't remove all Dre-related material from the company's listings by last Friday (4/21), but several Dre tracks remained available for download via the site by Tuesday evening (4/25).

The suit claims that Napster "encourages and enables" the unlawful exchange of MP3 files that are protected by copyright. "The end result of the process is that Napster's users are able to obtain the music they want for free," the lawsuit states. "The copyright owners, those rightfully entitled to profit from their music, get nothing.'' Besides seeking damages of $100,000 for each illegally copied track, the suit calls for the shuttering of the Napster website. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of Dr. Dre--the stage name of Andre Young--and Aftermath Entertainment, the record label that Dre heads.

Besides Napster, Dre's suit targets six universities as well as specific students, all of which will be named later, the suit claims. (Metallica's suit originally named as defendants three universities--the University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University--but dropped them after the schools agreed to limit or monitor access to the Napster site from school-run networks.)

"I don't like people stealing my music," Dre said in a statement issued to the press.

Dr. Dre is himself the target of legal problems similar to those of Napster. Last week, LucasFilm filed suit against the rapper, charging that he did not have permission to use the signature THX sound--which is heard before the openings of some movies--as the opening of his latest album.

The RIAA was the first to target Napster, filing a lawsuit on behalf of the record labels that comprise its membership in late 1999.