Gartner says Napster banned at 40% of colleges
Forty percent of US colleges and universities have banned the music file trading program Napster for Internet users surfing over campus servers.
George A. Chidi Jr. 30 August, 2000 23:00
Forty percent of US colleges and universities have banned the music file trading program Napster for Internet users surfing over campus servers, according to a report from technology market research company Gartner Group.
As students return to campus from summer vacation, college administrators wrestle with the legal and ethical questions surrounding the controversial program from Napster. Napster is due back in court sometime between Oct. 2 and Oct. 6 in San Francisco, according to published reports, where a three-judge panel from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) accusing the company of copyright infringement.
Napster allows its users to trade MP3-format music files over the Web, which violates music industry copyrights and robs artists of royalties for the reproductions, according to the RIAA. Napster says it is protected under the "fair use" doctrine, similar to the use of videotape recorders.
College students with broadband access to the Internet from their dorm rooms have caused headaches for network administrators, prompting some to ban the program.
Gartner polled administrators from 50 public and private colleges and universities and found the Napster issue raising serious moral and legal questions, Gartner said in a statement. "Schools must consider the implementation of ethical standards and policy guidelines, even written agreements, that explicitly state that copyright infringement is illegal and will not be tolerated," said P.J. McNealy, senior analyst for Gartner's e-Business Services.
However, colleges must also weigh First Amendment and privacy issues for students, said Reid Christenberry, associate provost for information services at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Georgia State restricts the use of the program -- and other bandwidth-hogging file sharing software -- because of potential network slowdowns. "We do not ban the particular use of a software product by name or by content," he said. "Because we're a state school, it raises issues of state action and free speech. We feel we'll always be safe when we're talking about routine business function of the network."