USC bucks growing MP3 ban

The move comes after USC officials held a town meeting with its student body on Feb. 17 about the use of Napster. More than 70 universities have already banned the software, claiming it gobbles up too much network bandwidth.

The software from Napster Inc. is a downloadable application that essentially lets people turn their computers into servers so they can trade their personal MP3 files. According to officials at Oregon State University, one of the first to block the program, in the week before the university cut off access it was taking up 20 percent of the school's bandwidth.

Chad Paulson, an Indiana University sophomore who has been tracking the issue, is collecting signatures for an online petition in an attempt to get his university to open up a public dialogue on the issue. Paulson said he's sympathetic to Indiana University's bandwidth concerns but feels more effort should have been made to educate students about network bandwidth issues before the ban was put in place there.

"I don't see paying $10,000 a year for in-state tuition to go to a school that limits its resources," Paulson said. "That's the antithesis of higher education in America."

'Short-term solution' Oregon State University says it tried to contact individuals who were using Napster too much before instituting an outright ban but lacked the resources to do so.

"Blocking Napster is a short-term solution," acknowledged Chris White, network administrator for OSU's residential computer network. "There are other programs out there, and we can't block them all."

White said OSU has begun tracking the use of another file-trading program called iMesh but so far has no plans to block it.

If the university had more resources, he said, OSU would have liked to follow the path set by the University of Southern California . USC said it will put limits on the total amount of bandwidth students are allowed to use but will not ban Napster outright. If students want more bandwidth they can get a faculty member to sponsor their request and they'll likely get it, according to student body president Tyler Kelley.

That's exactly the kind of solution Napster Inc. is hoping for. Elizabeth Brooks, Napster vice president of marketing, said the company is currently in contact with about 20 schools regarding ways to lessen the blow to computer systems. Brooks said solutions vary based on the school, but one of the best ways is for the university to prioritize its traffic.

"Something that's recreational traffic can be put on a lower priority," she said. "Nobody ever wanted Napster to get in the way of educational traffic. That certainly wasn't our intention."

Making a big splash For a product that isn't even scheduled to come out of beta testing until the end of March, Napster has already made quite a splash.

In early December the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed suit against the San Mateo, Calif., company alleging copyright infringement because the product allows people to access unauthorized copies of music from RIAA artists. Napster has said publicly that it is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it is like an Internet service provider and is not actually the entity copying the illegal files.

While Napster plans to continue to work with universities and to fight the RIAA lawsuit, it is forging ahead with plans for a full product launch in late March. The released version will feature added e-commerce options. Brooks said the company already has "millions" of users of its beta version simply through word of mouth.