Dr. Dre sues Napster -- and users?
In an unusual twist, the suit also leaves the door open for suing individual Napster users.
"If it turns out that there are people who have huge hard drives and actually are downloading copyrighted materials and transmitting (them) on the Internet, we may very well go after them because they are engaged in theft," said Dr. Dre attorney Howard King.
The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, follows a similar suit by heavy-metal group Metallica. Both suits were filed by King.
Napster had no comment on the legal action.
Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, previously sent Napster a letter asking the company to remove his songs from its lists. Napster's software allows users to view and swap digital songs that are stored on other users' hard drives.
"Their only response was (to say that) the songs aren't on their servers, and if (Young) will send a letter under penalty of perjury identifying specific songs and users that they would restrict those users," King said.
"That was not a satisfactory response. That was a comical response."
King said the new suit seeks an injunction against Napster as well as damages.
The suit filed by Metallica had originally named Yale University, the University of Southern California and Indiana University as co-defendants, but the schools were dropped after Yale and Indiana U banned students from using Napster and USC said students could use the service only on computers specified by the university.
The new suit lists 10 "John Doe" defendants that King said could be later identified as "universities that have not blocked Napster or students engaged in copyright violation."
Napster has also been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, which claims that Napster violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The RIAA and individual artists have also declared war on MP3.com, which allows users to access their private CD collections via the Internet.