Napster has suffered several blows as of late. From a dwindling userbase to suspended operations and earlier this week a court ordered the company to keep their service shutdown until they can implement filters that comply 100% with a preliminary injunction placed on them previously by the court. 

With all the bad news hitting the company recently, they needed something good to happen. The good news came from some unexpected sources, Metallica and Dr. Dre.  

Napster announced yesterday (July 12) that it had settled lawsuits brought against them by Metallica and Dr Dre back in April of 2000.  The plaintiffs (Metallica and Dre.) agreed to drop their suits and will allow Napster to include some of their music in the companies music sharing service when Napster implements their new �pay� model where artists and publishers are paid a royalty when their music is traded on Napster. 

Napster CEO Hank Berry explained the settlement in his statement, "Metallica has taken a courageous stand and a tough and principled approach to the protection of its name and creative output, and that of other artists," said Barry in the statement "They brought to our attention essential artists' rights issues, which we've addressed in our new technology. We respect what they've done and regret any harm which this dispute may have caused them."

On the Metallica front drummer and co-founder Lars Ulrich had this to say in a statement released yesterday (July 12),  "I think we've resolved this in a way that works for fans, recording artists, and songwriters alike. Our beef hasn't been with the concept of sharing music; everyone knows that we've never objected to our fans trading tapes of our live concert performances. 

"The problem we had with Napster was that they never asked us or other artists if we wanted to participate in their business." As for the settlement Lars said, "We believe that this settlement will create the kind of enhanced protection for artists that we've been seeking from Napster� It's good that they're going legit." 

However, the question still remains; will music fans pay for the new Napster service once it is in place? Especially, when the net has so many free, yet non-artist-sanctioned alternatives to chose from.  
 

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