A band of programmers are developing a clone of the controversial MP3 'seek, locate, download' software, Napster, that will specifically targets and offer Metallica tracks.

According to the group's (rather ill-spelled and foul-mouthed - you have been warned) Web site, the software was originally created to see how Napster works. But in protest at the rock band's legal assault on Napster (the company), the group has renamed its app 'Metallicster'.

There's nothing to download yet from the site yet, so we can't verify the existence of Metallicster, but the group promises the software "soon".

Accepting that Metallica's tunes might not be to everyone's taste, the site's author - who curiously appears not to be part of the software's development team - asks anyone who supports MP3 to download it (eventually) as a massive signal of online solidarity.

"Now obviously we realise not everyone out there likes the bastards but we ask you out of moral and comedy values to download the software when and as it becomes available. In fact, Metallicster kind of depends on those who ain't fans of the group (they're after all, unlikely to increase the demise of their favorite musicians... or are they?).

A hint of irony, there, perhaps? A suggestion that the author might actually think MP3 a bad thing? Maybe, since (s)he also says: "Napster should definitely (and sensibly) be held responsible for the contents of other people's computers" even though, apparently, "it is a great mis-justice if they ever get penalised". And the screengrabs do have a certain air of 'eau de Photoshop' about them.

We'll see when (if?) Metallicster gets released. ®