Even a month before the Dave Matthews Band came out with its latest CD “Everyday,” some people had already downloaded digital copies of its new hits through Napster, an Internet service that allows music trading online for free.
But after the 9th Circuit Court’s February ruling that the service was a “contributory” and “vicarious” copyright infringer, the opportunity to download any song through Napster may not be around for long.
On Sunday, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) disclosed that it has sent Napster a list of about 135,000 copyrighted songs to be filtered from its song-swapping system by today, disappointing hearts at some universities, the home of many Napster fans.
While some students said the final court decisions were somewhat disappointing, many don’t see this as the death of free online music trading. There are still loopholes in the system and other Internet services similar to Napster. And while Napster has a CEO, Hank Barry, other similar programs don’t have a particular person in control and can’t be sued.
Eric McLoughlin, a freshman business major, said that despite efforts to prevent free music trading, people will find ways to evade restrictions.
“There are always ways around everything,” he said.
Napster’s first attempt at file-blocking more than a week ago was unsuccessful. The company had implemented a technology that screened out songs by checking song titles and artist’s names, but users quickly discovered ways to bypass the program. The more popular methods included the use of Pig Latin and substituting numerals for certain words. For example, anyone who wants to download songs by Metallica would search for “etallicaM.”
Law professor Keith Aoki , who teaches trademark and copyright, said that currently some users are “playing cat and mouse” by naming files oddly, and others have moved on to decentralized programs such as Gnutella.
“Consequently, unlike Napster, there is no company for the record company to sue,” he said about the other programs. “And it’s unlikely that they would sue 60 million users.”
McLoughlin, who is hooked up through the fast Ethernet connection in the residence halls, said that when the Napster controversy began, he explored other options. He currently downloads pictures, MP3 files and movie clips from a program called iMesh.
“There aren’t as many users, so you can’t always get what you want,” he said. “But it works.”
Although some students understand the music industry’s copyright concerns, some disagree with the logic that Napster slows down CD sales and say the Internet service should remain in its current form.
Matt Rabe, an undeclared freshman who said he has about 1,000 downloaded songs from Napster, said he doesn’t think the program should be shut down because the music industry doesn’t lose enough money as a result of Napster.
“I’m too broke to buy CDs. … That’s why I don’t buy them,” he said. “If I had the extra money, I’d get CDs as well.”
Allie Blakely, a junior education major, also said she doesn’t buy fewer CDs because of Napster, but rather sometimes uses it to sample songs she may wish to buy later.
Aoki added that the record industry may try and move against universities supplying net access (ISPs) and get them to police traffic. The University of Oregon has never blocked Napster in the past, but it does have a code that deals with illegal downloading of copyrighted material.
Last year, the University of Oregon was among the many universities nationwide that received letters from Metallica and Dr. Dre’s attorney, Howard E. King, urging the schools to ban access to Napster on their campuses.
The University refused to do so. Debra Eldredge, executive assistant at the Office of General Counsel, said the University’s position hasn’t changed so far, but she said the issue could be “re-visited” in the future.
Most students agree that although Napster may have to undergo some modifications, such as charging monthly fees to keep running, they’d prefer these kinds of changes over the popular Internet service leaving their worlds completely.
“I wouldn’t mind paying a user fee,” Blakely said. “But if [Napster] is taken away, I will be really disappointed.”