Metallica initially charged Yale and Indiana universities, and the University of Southern California with violating the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act by allowing students access to Napster and the thousands of MP3 titles in its directory.

All three schools responded by barring or making it difficult for students to use Napster, and Metallica dropped them from the suit.

Dre’s suit is different. Instead of going after the universities that provide the Internet connections to reach Napster, his suit opens the door to make the students that actually use the service liable.

Dre filed the action after demanding Napster remove directory listings of his recordings by April 21. Napster refused, saying it could only remove individual users identified as copyright violators.

The rapper is asking a U.S. Federal Court to shut Napster down and award damages of $100,000 per illegals copied title — some $10 million, according to the lawsuit.

“I don’t like people stealing my music,” Dre said in a press release. Although no individual students or universities were named in the suit, it did note that five schools and students will be named later.

That might be enough to get the serious attention of colleges and universities in light of the rush to banish Napster by the three schools named in the Metallica suit.