After being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America in December 1999, Napster was shut down, later to be overshadowed by other file-sharing programs like Morpheus and KaZaA.
Now, Napster plans on unveiling a new, subscription-based file-sharing process by the end of the first quarter of the 2002 business year, with fees to be determined.
However, many Boston University students said they won’t come back.
“Any fee is just too much,” said College of General Studies sophomore Ken Watson.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Jackie McDermott said Napster’s fees reflect corporate greed. “Big record companies are making enough money as it is. Plus, if I download music, it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to buy their CD.”
Magellan Casto, a freshman in CAS, agreed. “If you really like the band, then you’re not going to get the cover art, the booklet and the lyrics by downloading.”
Students also complained that if an artist doesn’t reach an agreement with Napster, that artist’s songs will not exist in the available selection of files.
According to Kim Campbell, a School of Management freshman, some students “would have to see who’s cooperating” before subscribing.
Other students, though, said they’d be more willing to give the new Napster a try.
“Napster had a really fast network and was full of variety,” said CAS sophomore Sari-beth Esmail. “It all depends on the fee.”
Students who swear by Morpheus and other free file-sharing systems should beware, though: BU is watching.
Jim Stone, director of BU’s Office of Information Technology, said although the University does not look specifically for students downloading and sharing files, it is informed by certain companies that students are committing copyright infringement by downloading files through sources like Morpheus.
“There are six agencies [including Sony, Motion Picture Association of America, Warner Brothers, Inc., Adobe, Microsoft and the RIAA] today that are notifying universities that particular students are involved in copyright infringement,” Stone said. “And since it’s the law, we can’t turn a blind eye.”
As soon as BU is notified, “the University is compelled to do something about it,” Stone said. The student will first be notified with a written warning. But if the student continues to violate the U.S. copyright law, then the student will have to go to the Dean of Student’s office, Stone said.
However, Stone said he could see why students would use illegal file-sharing programs.
“I wouldn’t want to be in [Napster’s] shoes,” Stone said. “You’ve got to have what [people] want. Aimster, Morpheus, KaZaA all have it, and having it for free is a huge incentive.”
Napster’s extremely popular mp3-sharing program was shut down after the RIAA’s lawsuit. The revamped program, which already has signed agreements with the Matador and Vitaminic record labels, will compensate songwriters and performers for songs downloaded.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
