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Showing up with a lawyer was about the least “rock star” a move that Ulrich could make, and from the moment he realized Napster was housed in the decrepit building over a bank, he grew more and more uncomfortable. After pontificating outside, Ulrich and King went in with a dolly hauling the documents up to Napster’s offices. Xtime spokesman Travis Murdock happened to be riding up in the old, creaky elevator at the same time and saw that Ulrich looked miserable. When the doors opened at Napster’s fourth-floor office, the employees came up to him and told him what fans they were and how they had gone to Metallica concerts in junior high. Ulrich seemed to slump. “I really don’t want to sue you,” he said. “All I want is for artists who want to get paid to get paid.”

Shawn and Parker were quarantined on the fifth floor, away from the press, but they and Ali Aydar snuck out for peeks at what was going on. Some of the Napster crew were upset at what was happening. Others were more annoyed at Napster’s leadership for doing a lousy job of explaining to the public what the issues were. “The bands don’t get the money,” Ritter thought, exasperated. “The record companies do.” Napster eventually issued a statement saying that it would comply with Metallica’s request to ban the users. On May 10, Napster blocked 317,377 users cited by Metallica. Fans complained that they had been tricked into downloading a new version of Napster that made the bans possible. Soon a section cropped up on the Napster message board entitled “Circumventing Napster Bans,” with helpful hints about how to get back on. After a news website linked to the comments, Barber ordered moderator Chang to remove them. A Napster fan, crying censorship, got hold of Ritter on an IRC channel and complained. “We will go out of business for shit like that!” Ritter replied under his “Nocarrier” handle. “Delete the post, or lose the court battle, and you lose your napster! This is reality man!”

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