Northwestern is closely watching the outcome of a partnership between Pennsylvania State University and online music provider Napster, an NU administrator said. The partnership, which entered a trial phase Jan. 12, will grant all Penn State students unlimited access to Napster’s services and music library.
Morteza Rahimi, vice president of Northwestern University Information Technology, said NU is waiting to see the trial phase’s outcome before deciding whether a similar deal is right for NU.
“By summer, we should have a pretty good idea of what’s happened,” Rahimi said. “Universities are very good at sharing information, and then we’ll decide if we want to go forward.”
The Napster-Penn State deal is the first to team a university with an online music provider that provides a legal alternative to illicit file-sharing services, said Bill Mahon, Penn State’s assistant vice president for university relations.
The university announced the deal in November and ushered in a trial phase at the beginning of the spring semester. This experimental period grants 17,000 of the school’s 83,000 students complete access to Napster’s services and music library.
Mahon said if the trial phase continues smoothly, Penn State will extend Napster access to every student on all 24 of its campuses.
“We’re getting a lot of positive feedback,” Mahon said. “Everything is working the way we intended it to, and we’re on track now to open this up for all 83,000 students for the fall semester.”
Cost could be the biggest barrier that prevents NU from entering into a similar deal with an online music provider, Rahimi said.
Mahon said Penn State will pay for Napster’s access using an information technology fee that is already in place.
But NU does not have an information technology fee, so the bill would have to land elsewhere — possibly drawing on room and board fees as NUTV does — if NU decides to team up with an online music provider.
“The question then becomes — if we really do want to do this — is this something we want to pay for?” Rahimi said.
Neither Mahon nor officials at Napster would reveal the deal’s cost, citing contract prohibitions. Individual subscriptions to Napster’s Premium Service normally cost $9.95 per month.
The partnership offers Penn State students the equivalent of Napster’s Premium Service, consisting of access to streaming music, an online magazine, 40 radio stations and “tethered” downloading from Napster’s library of more than 500,000 songs.
Tethered downloading allows students to download tracks to their computers free of charge, though they must pay a fee for burning music to portable devices.
Mahon highlighted one aspect of the deal: It provides students with a legal alternative to illicit file-sharing, a problem that has increased in importance at college campuses since the Recording Industry Association of America began targeting individual users with copyright infringement lawsuits. A large number of individuals targeted with lawsuits have been college students.
“I don’t download because of the fear of being caught,” Medill freshman Lindsay Wallace said. “But if it was legal I would definitely be interested in that service.”
Wallace said she stays away from all forms of file-sharing services. Other students said they share her fear and would be happy to see a legal alternative to controversial peer-to-peer services such as Gnucleus or iMesh.
“I’d be for it — wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught by Kazaa,” Weinberg sophomore Samantha Corbett said.
RIAA President Cary Sherman praised the deal in an e-mail to The Daily Friday. Although Mahon said he is uncertain whether illegal file-sharing has decreased at Penn State since the trial period began, he said he is pleased to see a legal outlet for file-sharing students.
“I think the more services available legally, the less people will be stealing music,” Mahon said.
