College students and file-sharing networks are no longer on opposite sides of the online music piracy war.

University administrators and music servers have allied to counter illegal file sharing through a subscription program for online music sharing to provide free music to their students. More than 20 schools — including Pennsylvania State University, University of Rochester and Ohio University — participate.

Subscriptions to networks, such as Napster, have been considered at Northwestern but have not received enough student support and financial resources to create a similar subscription service, said Wendy Woodward, NU’s director of technical support services.

“It’s something that has been explored,” Woodward said. “But as it stands, these services are expensive and need a high take rate.”

Penn State, the first school to be involved, launched its partnership with Napster in January. The program, available to students who pay a fee included with the tuition bill at the beginning of the year, began as a 12,000-student trial available only to those in residence halls. An estimated 32,000 students now have signed on to the music shareware service.

“It provides students with a legal alternative and it’s an expandable music service, which can have use in the classroom,” said Tysen Kendig, a Penn State spokesman.

The 24-hour service does not increase tuition or student fees, Kendig said.

Woodward said such a program could benefit NU by building an online community and facilitating learning.

“From an academic perspective, it’s convenient and neat if faculty in a music class told you to listen to these five songs, and, by the way, they’re online,” Woodward said.

McCormick freshman Elizabeth Abrahamson said she would be interested in subscribing to such a service.

“I use iTunes, but it’d be nicer if you could search for songs and have them for yourself,” she said. “We could have more selection.”

For many students, having a pre-paid service like the one at Penn State would eliminate the legal problems involved in downloading music from illegal peer-to-peer software.

Weinberg freshman Robert Lee used to download MP3 files of Korean music from Soribada, which he said is similar to a Korean Napster. But once Lee arrived on campus, the campus network prevented him from downloading files.

Lee said a partnership between NU and a music-sharing company would provide students with a variety of media. “We can hear others countries’ music. It’d be cool,” he said.

With enough student support from Associated Student Government and other student advisory committees, Woodward said there is potential for legal file sharing to come to NU.

“We continue to be open to talking about new technologies,” Woodward said. “Students have to have input and it comes down to interest and resources.”

Reach Archana Ram at [email protected].