Ball State might soon follow the lead of another university thatmade a deal with Napster, a deal which is being called the firststep in allowing free but legal music downloads.
The agreement, made with Penn State University, will give the18,000 students living in the dorms Napster's premium servicestarting January.
"Penn State's project is a very interesting one and one we haveto examine here to see what features and services we could bring toour students," Philip Repp, associate vice president of informationtechnology, said.
"We'd have to take a look at that very carefully before we wouldsay, 'Yes, let's go out and provide this freebie service,'" Reppsaid.
Napster's premium service includes unlimited streaming andtethered downloads, as well as access to 40 radio stations, anonline magazine and message boards.
Students can save the tethered download files on as many asthree computers. They will have to pay 99 cents for each song theywant to put on a CD or MP3 player.
Napster normally charges $10 a month. Penn State will pay forthe service through its information technology fee -- a mandatory$160 that students already pay. The fee will not be raised toprovide the service.
Penn State plans on offering the service to all 83,000 studentson 24 campuses by next fall.
College campuses have become a main source of music piracybecause so many young people with high-speed Internet access attendthem, and some said the Penn State agreement will increase legalfile sharing, and they supported the idea.
"I definitely would support it because it's a big deal oncampus, and it's a thing that a lot of students enjoy doing," GinaSciortino, a sophomore at Ball State, said.
Another Ball State student, however, said he has a problem withallocating technology funds for file sharing.
"I feel that your technology fee should go to the study areasand not to stuff used for recreation or personal use," Gary Rogers,a junior at Ball State, said.
Repp said the university would consider such concerns beforedeciding.
"We would have to examine that thoroughly to decide if that isthe correct use of the student technology fee because the fee wasintended to help with instruction and activities on campus," Reppsaid.
Penn State will use the spring semester as a trial period beforeit offers the service to its entire student population, and BallState would evolve in a similar way with a file-sharingagreement.
"Kind of evolving locally and going more globally makes a lot ofsense to us," Repp said.
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