GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us there is a bit of a contraversy over at Cornell University. It has to do with the free trial from Napster that is leaving supposedly 20 percent of students out in the cold since it only supports the Windows OS. In addition, a much larger percentage, a claimed 50 to 70 percent can't take advantage of the deal due to the fact they bought iPods.
 Cornell is currently using a grant, believed to be from Sony, to fund the Napster beta. Should the school move from trial to full service, students will likely pay US$ 20 per year for Napster. Well, that"s what Windows using students will pay. Apple fans are being asked to pay US$ 149 for Microsoft"s Virtual PC software, if they want to run Napster. (Cornell"s Napster page provides a broken link to the Microsoft product, but you can find it here.) That $ 149 fee is the equivalent of seven years of Napster at the college rate, so we hope the Mac users are slackers and get the most of their investment. Given Cornell"s wonderfully close ties to Microsoft and Intel, it seems the day when a Wintel machine is required can"t be too far off. So, in total, Cornell has picked a music rental service that one-fifth of its students can"t use, that doesn"t support the leading music-playing device and that will eventually add to already astronomical education costs. All of this so students can rent music for four years and then have their investment disappear as they head to the real world. |
You can read the full story over at The Register. I'm sorry, I just can't get too excited over this contraversy. Seems to me Apple could offer the same deal, why aren't the students complaining to Steve Jobs? He's the one that won't "play fair". I think that the main problem is not the lack of support for Macs, which I find the figure of 20 percent a stretch, but rather that Apple has such a popular player that unfortunately people can only play ripped albums or iTunes. It's all about DRM, whether it be Apple or Microsoft or whoever. It is not a good solution.
Source: The Register
