10 Biggest WTF Moments In 2000s Rock
6. Lars Ulrich Vs. Napster
The rise of the Internet in the late 90s and early 2000s led to a great many things, but the degenerate deed we're looking at today is file sharing.
As soon as music, movies, and TV shows began getting recorded in digital form, people worked out how to transfer those files from person to person, essentially distributing thousands of hours of content for free online.
One of the biggest sites for music sharing was Napster, which was founded in 1999. Unfortunately, when you fly close to the Sun, your wings are going to melt.
In this instance, the Sun is an angry Danish drummer.
Lars Ulrich of Metallica began speaking out against the site in 2000, accusing them of copyright infringement and racketeering. This led to the first ever lawsuit from an artist against a file sharer, which Napster lost heavily.
This opened the floodgates for other musicians to take on the headphone-wearing cat and, by 2001, Napster was essentially dead.
Look, we know you want to make money from your work and stuff, Lars, but did you really have to ruin the fun for everyone?