Music News

Offspring and Napster call a truce

Embattled MP3 software merchant Napster and prankster bad boy alternative rockers The Offspring called a stalemate last Monday over the rock bands selling of Napster T-shirts, hats and stickers at their official Web site, www.offspring.com, according to Sonicnet.

Napster filed a cease and desist order June 2 against The Offspring to stop the band from selling the unauthorized merchandise prompting some to label the move as “hypocrisy.” As highly vocal advocates of Napster for promotional use, The Offspring began selling the merchandise on their site May 31 as a joke to see how Napster would react to the unauthorized use of its logo.

“It would be very interesting if they would go, ‘We’re going to send them a cease and desist [order],'” a source close to the Offspring told Sonicnet before the stop order was filed, “’cause it would all of a sudden expose a huge hypocrisy. Or, it would really, really be interesting if all of a sudden they say, ‘We think that’s cool. We hope that more bands do that because the more Napster T-shirts out there, the cooler it is. Ah! [That would suggest] these guys are genuine.”

Napster has been involved in a series of legal battles over their MP3 software with heavy metal rockers Metallica, kingpin rapper Dr. Dre and the Recording Industry Association of America, who all claim the company encourages people to pirate high quality music files and share them via the Internet.

Napster and The Offspring will now sell the merchandise in a concerted effort and donate the proceeds to a charity that has not yet been named.

More Napster news

More than 30,000 users of Napster’s MP3 file-sharing program were reinstated by the company after heavy metal band Metallica failed to sue them and they swore under the penalty of perjury that they were not guilty of violating Metallica’s copyright by illegally sharing the band’s song files, according to Sonicnet.

This is resulting from an incident three weeks ago when Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich delivered a list of more than 300,000 names to Napster’s office in San Mateo, Calif., and requested that the users be removed from the system under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Mike Myers sued by Universal

Mike Myers, international man of mystery is being sued by Universal Studios for backing out of a legal commitment to make “Dieter,” based on a German avant-garde talk show host character invented by Myers, according to Reuters.

Myers wrote the script, and it would have garnered the comedian and creator of “Austin Powers” a reported paycheck of $20 million.

Universal is suing for $3.8 million it said it incurred as a result of the commitment as well as legal costs. The studio also wants Myers barred from working on other television or film projects until he agrees to complete “Dieter.”

Myers gave no reason for abandoning the project May 30, two months after committing to it, according to Reuters.

Bell tolls for Carrey

Jim Carrey will be starring in a new film by Joel Schumacher titled “Phone Booth.”

The film is a drama about a man who picks up a ringing phone on a busy Manhattan sidewalk and is told he will be shot if he hangs up.

The project, written two years ago, has been highly sought after by producers and directors because of its unusual logistics and tight script.

The film is shot in one location and involves long continuous shots requiring Carrey to be on camera the entire film.