they cared because they were a struggling band trying hard to make ends meet
Those ivory towers don't come cheap
I think Hetfield needed something new to whine about?
I think the S/T /the black album, was the beginning of the end, Master of Puppets is a great record, and the most recent one is best they've done in years, but in between is all meh.
I think it was Trey Spruance talking about the Metallica thing, found it funny, and like you said, he couldn't understand ppl wanting the low quality mp3s. He was funny though 'cos he said, they make next to no money from CDs so that didn't hurt him, but a big band liek Metallica probably would lose a few dollars. He said though on the plus side of illegal downloading, ppl may buy the next CD, but more importantly for him finanically may come to a live show, and even better buy a t-shirt