Apres Napster, le deluge.

Metallica, along with co-copyright holders E/M Ventures and Creeping Death Music, jointly filed suit today against Napster, Inc., University of Southern California, Yale University and Indiana University.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court Central District of California, alleges the co-defendants committed continuing copyright infringements, made unlawful use of a digital audio interface device and committed violations of the Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act. That's RICO soave, folks.

"Napster has devised and distributed software whose sole purpose is to permit Napster to profit by abetting and encouraging the pirating of the creative efforts of the world's most admired and successful musical artists," the suit states. "Facilitating that effort are the hypocritical universities and colleges who could easily block this insidious and ongoing thievery scheme. The last link in the chain are the end users of the stolen musical works, students of these universities and others who exhibit the moral fiber of common looters loading up shopping carts because 'everybody else is doing it.'"

"With each project, we go through a grueling creative process to achieve music that we feel is representative of Metallica at that very moment in our lives," drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement. "We take our craft—whether it be the music, the lyrics, or the photos and artwork—very seriously, as do most artists. It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is. From a business standpoint, this is about piracy, taking something that doesn't belong to you; and that is morally and legally wrong. The trading of such information—whether it's music, videos, photos, or whatever—is, in effect, trafficking in stolen goods." Hey, you don't hear Rush complaining that Metallica stole all their riffs, do ya?

The Recording Industry Association Of America is also suing Napster for copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel canceled Monday's (4/10) scheduled court date between attorneys for both sides, and a new date has not been set, according to a spokesman for the RIAA.

Hey, wait'll these guys get a load of Gnutella.