Six more US Universities have signed up for Napster's service in an aim to discourage music piracy and protect their students from RIAA's lawsuit campaign. Like Napster's
standard subscription, this service will allow students to download an unlimited
amount of music, however the music will only play back on the University's
equipment, cannot be transferred to portable devices or CDs and expires once the
student leaves University.
However, as with Penn State 's Napster implementation, this service does come at a cost. All students are charged around $ 3 on top of their tuition fees whether or not they use or have access to the service and this may rise later on. The RIAA aims to attract more Universities to the Napster service through showing what Universities have taken on Napster in the press as well as target the students from other universities that illegally downloads and shares music with legal action. GristyMcFisty submitted the following news via our news submit :
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Cornell University, the George Washington University, Middlebury College, University of Miami, the University of Southern California and the Wright State University (Ohio) have all pledged to have Napster up and running in the near future. The schools join Penn State University and University of Rochester as Napster subscribers. That's a grand total of eight schools in the last nine months that have agreed to become music vendors and pay an RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tax to avoid lawsuits against their students. There might be something noble about the schools protecting their children if it were not for the dubious circumstances surrounding these deals. None of the schools have yet to say how much they actually pay for the Napster service. It costs a month for the average subscriber, but Penn State and University of Rochester have admitted to receiving the service for much less. And, in May, Ohio University revealed that Napster is looking for about $ 3 per month from each student. The price in itself is a problem but not the main problem. Napster and the RIAA tossed Penn State and University of Rochester sweet deals, having every intention of dangling the schools in front of the press and other universities as models to follow. If Napster would be more forthcoming, we'd all know exactly how much this "service" is going to affect university prices. Some of the Napsterized schools have warned that students may end up footing the service bill directly in the near future - not that they aren't paying in some way, shape or form already. The Register has a rather lengthy opinion on what went wrong when Write State University took on Napster. |
In a way, it seems rather cheeky that all students are forced to pay for a service whether or not they use or want it, especially since downloaded music will only play back on the School's equipment. A better solution would be to offer the same Napster subscription service to students as with regular users, but at a special low discount rate for students. This way, students who are not interested in the service are not forced to pay for it.
Source: The Register - Internet & Law
