By Evan Malakates
A new system that allows residential students to download music legally has been implemented at some colleges this fall and may make its way onto the University in the near future.
In an attempt to avoid legal repercussions that come with downloading music illegally, George Washington, Cornell and Pennsylvania State universities have started a system in which all students living on campus can use the once banned file sharing program Napster, for free.
Napster has now become an amenity at George Washington University, where students have come to expect and rely on, like cable television, according to an article in the Washington Post. At the University, however, students are highly dependent on illegal file sharing programs like Kazaa, Kazaa Lite and Morpheus.
A student computer services advisory committee held forums where students had the chance to step up and voice their opinions on possible courses of action the school should take. Unfortunately, student turnout has been less than impressive.
Daniel Ramirez, ResNet coordinator, expressed the problems the school has with making drastic changes in the file sharing system without getting a true grasp of what the students want.
“If we commit to one program, like Napster, all other illegal programs, like Kazaa, would be completely cut off,” Ramirez said.
Last spring, ResNet supplied a handful of students with a version of Napster similar to the one used on George Washington’s campus. Unfortunately, not enough feedback was obtained from the students, leaving ResNet with a difficult decision to make.
James R. Shuart, the manager of student computer services, stressed the importance of having a firm grasp on what the student body really wants.
“We have a pool of money from technical fees charged to students,” Shuart said referring to annual technical fees students must pay the University.
“The money could be spent on a service like Napster for students; however, we want a student majority before we commit to anything.”
The University has been trying to put a stranglehold on the excessive amount of illegal downloading by giving appearance summonses to students tracked through the school’s system as being major file downloaders or suppliers.
Senior Nathan Bortnick supports the idea of having a contractual agreement with Napster, citing the appearance summonses as nonsense.
“I’m for it because it allows students to legally download from the Internet,” Bortnick said. “It would also put an end to those crazy summonses students get for downloading. On the other hand, only being able to use Napster seriously limits our options as students.”
As far as the Napster service sampled by the school last year, there did exist limitations.
“When we tested [it] last spring, we were able to find pretty much anything that you could find on MTV or other popular music sources,” Ramirez said. “However, other classics like the Beatles were much harder to come across.”
It is obvious the University has a multitude of options to explore as far as file sharing goes, but true progress will only be made with involvement from the student body.
“We have not had any contractual talks with any companies,” Shuart said. “However, once we have some solid input from the students, we can begin move forward.”