http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/ind … label.html

Over a decade after drummer Lars Ulrich’s very public lawsuit against file sharing network Napster, it would seem that the scales might have tipped for heavy metal giants Metallica.

According to Crawdaddy.com, Napster founder Sean Parker is currently in talks with investors to buy Warner Music Group for around $2.5 Billion Dollars.

WMG is the current home of Metallica’s back catalogue, from 1983’s Kill ‘Em All, all the way to 2008’s Death Magnetic.

Metallica sued Napster back in 2000 after a demo of an unreleased Metallica song started circulating via the peer to peer network, which brought it to the band’s attention.

While the RIAA had already filed a lawsuit against the company, Metallica was the first band to publically slam the music sharing tool. Metallica’s motion to take Napster to court, however, left a sour taste in the mouths of some fans, who claimed that the band were money hungry and fan-hating.

If Parker is successful in buying out Warner Music Group, the impact that this would actually have on Metallica remains to be seen. As of 2008, and the release of Death Magnetic, the band’s contract with Warners has technically expired.

Ulrich, in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2008, discussed the options that the band had for releasing their next record: "We’re free of our record contract… we have that element of complete freedom with the next record, so we can do whatever we want. We could do an Internet thing or even put it on Andy Greene’s record label."