Metallica vs. Napster, Inc. was the first case that involved an artist suing a peer-to-peer file sharing ("P2P") software company.

The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career.

[4] On July 11, 2000, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich read testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee accusing Napster of copyright infringement.

He explained that, that year, Metallica discovered that a demo of "I Disappear", a song set to be released with the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack, was being played on the radio.

Metallica traced the leak to a file on Napster's peer-to-peer file-sharing network, where the band's entire catalogue was available for free download.

[12] Other artists including Dr. Dre, a number of record companies, and the RIAA subsequently filed their own lawsuits which led to the termination of an additional 230,142 Napster accounts.

[14] This $94 million deal was blocked when Judge Peter Walsh ruled that the deal was tainted because Napster Chief Executive Officer Konrad Hilbers, a former Bertelsmann executive, had one foot in the Napster camp and one foot in the Bertelsmann camp.

[15] The Napster program was originally a way for nineteen-year-old Shawn Fanning and his friends throughout the country to trade music in the MP3 format.

At its peak Napster facilitated nearly 2 billion file transfers per month and had an estimated net-worth of between 60 and 80 million dollars.

One of the largest issues with P2P software is the public assumption that users use these programs strictly for illegal sharing of copyrighted files.

that were worried that the ruling in the Metallica v. Napster, Inc. case would affect the future of P2P file sharing and other industries that stemmed from the growing popularity of MP3 music.

The RIAA claimed that the Rio did not comply with the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), and thus its production should be halted.