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Napster access for university students

7 November 2003 13:01 by Jari Ketola | 1 comment

Napster online music store and Pennsylvania State University have announced a deal that allows university students to access the Napster service for free. The deal is a part of the ongoing efforts by universities to find legal alternatives to Kazaa and other peer-to-peer services.

In the first stage about 18,000 students will have access to a limiter Napster service, where they can listen to streaming music or download tethered music files, ie. files protected with DRM so that they can only be played back on a limited number of computers, and for limited time. In order to burn music on CDs, students will have to pay the full price of 99 cents per song. Later the service will be expanded to cover all students and staff. The service will be funded through the existing, $160 per semester IT fee the students must pay.

Napster, as well as the entire music industry hopes, that by introducing students to legal methods of acquiring music they will carry on the habit when they leave their universities, and continue purchasing songs online instead of downloading them. Then again, by the time current students graduate, the online music scene might be completely different from what is is today.

In any case, Napter is the first feasible alternative to P2P networks. While some students will still go to Kazaa to download songs for burning, many will likely settle for the streaming services and tethered downloads.

Source:
News.com

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