Metallica Sue Canadian Band over E, F Chords
07.15.2003 1:55 PM EDT



"It's just a matter of a band having the right to protect the
chords it uses. I couldn't start up my own soft drink company using
the exact same formula as Coca-Cola." ‹ Jill Pietrini, Metallica's lawyer
MONTREAL ‹ Metallica are taking legal action against independant Canadian
rock band Unfaith over what they feel is unsanctioned usage of
two chords the band has been using since 1982 : E and F.

"People are going to get on our case again for this, but try to see it from
our point of view just once," stated Metallica's Lars Ulrich. "We're not
saying we own those two chords, individually - that would be ridiculous.
We're just saying that in that specific order, people have
grown to associate E, F with our music."

Metallica filed a trademark infringement suit against the indie group
at the US district court for central California on Monday. According
to the drummer, the continued use of the two chords causes "confusion,
deception and mistake in the minds of the public".

Metallica's lawyer, Jill Pietrini, told us that the band
decided to take legal action only after first sending a letter
of complaint to the Canadian band's singer/songwriter, Erik
Ashley.

"We sent a demand letter and haven't reached a resolution, so we had to
sue," she said. "They continue to shamelessly feature the two chords on
their website song samples and we just can't have that."

Ashley, in the meantime, is still shocked by the entire story, and
hasn't yet decided how the band will respond.

"I thought it was a prank at first," he told us. "Now I'm not sure what
to think."

Ulrich states that he's not trying to prevent Unfaith from using the
two chords, only that he feels Metallica should be credited for them
whenever used, and is calling for 50% of all revenue generated from
any song using them.

"It's nothing personal against them," he added. "We intend to enforce
our rights with any band intending to use Metallica-branded chords in the
future."

This marks the first time anything of this kind has ever been tried
in court, and it will be interesting to see how things develop.

Metallica's website has issued an official statement on the suit here
.

Unfaith's official website hasn't officially
responded at print time.

Follow-up link:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/L...index.html

You ARE aware that this is a joke...right?


Okay.



Right on.



Good, then.




Just making sure...

Anxiety said:

If it were serious, y would i bother posting it here?
I think it's funny as hell though...
[This message was edited Fri Jul 18 13:01:05 PDT 2003 by SpcMs]

Anxiety said:

Thank god. That would be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. But I wouldn't put such a thing past Lars.

TRON said:

Exactly... funny thing is, they have become so sue happy that even a joke like this makes you wonder what Lars will attempt next. They've become a joke instead of the great metal band that they are/were.

SpcMs said:

LMFAO! Thats a hoot!

you had me, only for a few seconds, but you had me! i just don't put anything past metallica and prince when it comes to lawsuits.

Next thing you know they'll be suing over the use of the mixolydian scale. Surprise they haven't sued over the use of the double bass drum though, Lars did invent that shit right?