Digital Music News has posted an interview with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich from 2000 with Charlie Rose discussing the band's legal action against Napster at the time. An excerpt is available below:

Rose: What is it about this, strip it away for us.  Why is Napster such a bad thing, that you want to stop it?

Ulrich: "In essence, it’s about control, it’s really about controlling what you own.  We clearly own our own songs, we own the master recordings to those, and we want to be the ones that control the use of those on the internet, that’s it in the essence.  So we are going after Napster legally, in a legal form, but at the same time what’s becoming increasingly important to us is to try to get this out into the public forum, to try and make people understand what’s at stake here, and what the ramifications are if this is not something that is dealt with and guided with some sort of parameters that makes the artists, the service providers, and the fans out there happy."

Rose: What’s at stake?

Ulrich: "What’s at stake is really the control of it."

Rose: An artist’s right to own and control his own art.

Ulrich: "Control, yes, that’s what at stake for us, right now.  At the same time, this is something that changes every 15 minutes with the advent of another technological wonder, so you can only sort of trail where technology is going.   But right now what’s at stake is controlling music, and trying to set some parameters for the future."

Go to this location for the complete interview. For a rundown on the Metallica versus Napster court case click here.

Drum legend Dave Lombardo (Philm, Slayer) is featured in a new interview with The Heavy Metal Mayhem Radio Show, found below. Part of the discussion focuses on illegal downloading and music piracy. Asked is he feels Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was right to launch a lawsuit against Napster in 2000 for file sharing, Lombardo was supportive of the move:

"He was smart. He tried to fight against it, and that was a brave thing Lars did, and his team. But, unfortunately, it's still going on, and there's nothing really at this point we can do about it."

Lombardo on the music industry's decline:

"You definitely noticed when it happened - in the years following the commencement of the internet and downloads, and when Napster started, you started noticing a change in your royalty checks. So it wasn't something that you were able to foretell, it's just something that happened."