Digital technology has made its way into the hearts of many University students, as well as their residence hall rooms.
“Go for it,” freshman Alex Crowder said when asked her opinion on downloading music and movies — because, as many feel, downloading is as easy as one-two-three.
“A 12-year-old, with a click of a mouse, can send a movie hurtling to all of the continents,” Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, has said.
But others disagree. Even with advancing technology, some say those things aren’t yet possible.
“Transferring the sheer number of bits that compromise a single television show that was broadcast over the air … is just not feasible,” according to a study done by Raffi Krikorian, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
And this is just the latest debate in a battle between corporate and consumer rights.
Digital music technology started to take off in May 1999 when Northeastern University freshman Shawn Fanning founded Napster.
The service, which was known for its easy peer-to-peer file sharing, allowed users to trade music in mp3 format, which compresses recordings into small and portable files without sacrificing quality.
In December 1999, Napster found itself facing the first of many lawsuits, brought by multiple record labels. Shortly after, in April 2000, Metallica also sued Napster for copyright infringement and racketeering.
In February 2001, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Napster knew its users were violating copyright law, and Napster came to an agreement to remove a list of songs from its server.
After Napster was created, a flurry of similar services were established, such as KaZaA.
According to Resident Hall Computing Services Coordinator Norm Meyers, the University started to monitor file sharing within the resident halls three to four years ago.
“(The computing services) focus is on the academic side, but the entertainment sides, such as music, movies, etc., are a plus,” Meyers said. “We don’t encourage (downloading), but we don’t discourage it as long as (the students) are responsible.”
The University, obliged to oversee uploads to protect itself from lawsuits, monitors what students do online through a $50,000 network program called Packeteer. The program restricts peer-to-peer file sharing by monitoring Internet traffic and directing entertainment downloads to a slower, lower-priority pathway.

Read Part 2 of this story:
Guitarist headlines censorship talks