N.Y. College Offers Students Napster Deal
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 5, 2004
Filed at 3:41 p.m. ET
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- The University of Rochester will soon offer students free digital music from the relaunched Napster service.
It is only the second college in the nation -- after Penn State University -- to enter into an agreement with Napster to provide digital music at no cost to students.
The service is designed to curb students' illegal sharing of music sharing and piracy. Recording artists have filed lawsuits against people who use personal file sharing sites.
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The school's 3,700 on-campus students will have access, starting later this semester to Napster's collection of some 500,000 songs. Access will be extended to off-campus students, faculty and staff by the fall.
``If it's sanctioned and it's legal, I'll use it,'' junior Robert Clemm, 21, said in Thursday's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
But considering the high cost of a college education, Clemm said the Napster service might join ``a laundry list of real or perceived wasteful spending on the part of the university.''
The school declined to reveal the cost of the arrangement with Napster, whose premium service usually is priced at $9.95 per customer monthly.
The Napster collection was made available in January to 17,000 students living in residence halls on several Penn State campuses. The service will be offered in the fall to all 83,000 students throughout the university system. |
