More artists to sue Napster says Metallica lawyer Music & MP36/5/2000; 7:17:29 AM April 24, 2000: "Expect more headline acts to follow Metallica's lead and launch legal action against controversial software developer Napster - so says the metal band's lawyer, Howard King."I think there's still some confusion going on here. Napster-the-company is doing nothing illegal. All it does is offer software and provide a free indexing service. You may want to sue Napster-the-software... but you can't sue a piece of software.And if you really want to nail Napster-the-company for enabling extensive illegal activities, then you better broaden your suit. Along with Apache and ftp server developers, and with the people who run IRC and the people who make the software to interface with it, like mIRC, you'd better add any other piece of software that is primarily or often used for illegal purposes. Are you going to nail Netscape for providing a newsgroup reader that allows anybody with an internet connection regardless of age to view porn?The whole "Napster-the-company is responsible for our [hypothetical] lost income" bit only makes sense in isolation from the rest of the world. Applied elsewhere it's pretty scary.Watch 'dem lines... they bite.Alternate view: Hail, Metallica! in Salon.