I understand that it has been a problem for a long time with college students downloading mp3s – heck, that’s where Napster got it’s start, and we all know who the real Napster is, right? (Watch The Italian Job – it’s a great movie!) I don’t think it’s right though that Penn State students are forced to sign up for Napster.
Napster made a deal with the college, “touted by university officials and the company as a way to provide students with a legal alternative to downloading music illegally from Kazaa or other file-swapping networks.” Students get access to Napster and the charges are included as part of the school’s pre-existing information technology fees.
I think it’s wrong for a few different reasons. What if you don’t want to download mp3s at all? What if that’s just not your thing? What if you are a student already on a tight budget, and that just makes it harder to afford college? (They haven’t said what the new fees will be with the service added in.) What if you live off campus, so you can’t take advantage of the school’s network to download files? What if you just have an issue with your school giving money to a corporation like that? I wouldn’t appreciate it if my school forced me to sign up for a subscription based program with any corporation – it’s like telling me that I must pay for cable and all of the movie channels, even if I don’t want to watch TV.
We were talking about this at lunch yesterday – isn’t it funny that in the ’80s we used to make cassettes for each other, and no one really said that it was wrong. If I had a cassette and you liked it, I would use my dual-cassette player and make you a copy. Now the RIAA would hunt me down for the same thing. Somedays it seems like the world has gone just a little bit crazy…
12 replies on “Forced Music…”
I agree.
1) What if you don’t want to download mp3s at all?
What if you go to Penn State and you don’t like athletics? What if you are a Republican and some of your student fees go to supporting the campus Democratic club?
2) What if you are a student already on a tight budget, and that just makes it harder to afford college?
Penn State is not raising fees. It is coming out of the existing technology fee.
3) What if you live off campus, so you can’t take advantage of the school’s network to download files?
That’s next after this initial pilot with 18k students. They have a distributed campus system and 83k students. Napster is a centralized system… there is no reason why a student would have to be on campus. They are also considering offering it to alumni.
4) What if you just have an issue with your school giving money to a corporation like that?
Like Roxio?! What about Microsoft? Oracle? PeopleSoft? SCT? Do you choose not to attend Penn State because they have a big fat contract w/ MSFT?!
5) isn’t it funny that in the ’80s we used to make cassettes for each other, and no one really said that it was wrong.
Not true. There was a fee on blank casettes to offset the losses that would result from the medium. There is no similar fee for CD-R’s or 80gb hard drives.
hoestly intrigued, I’d like to talk to/ask more of this “sam” person… isn’t it funny that people choose not to leave contact info when blatanly stepping up to counter your points…
makes me actually now de-validate everything he’s said! 🙁
What is MSFT?
I’m not looking to attend Penn State any time soon, but I look at a forced fee for Napster the same as a forced fee for HBO. It’s an entertainment items, not related to using the computers like Oracle or Microsoft. Granted, computer use can be entertaining – but an operating system is needed for the computer to work. Napster is not needed.
THERE IS AN ENCORE PRESENTATION OF 8 SIMPLE RULES THE SAME ONE THAT U MISSED AT 10PM EST TIME!!!!
Thanks for the reminder, Heather! I *ran* to the Tivo at 8:53pm and set it to record at 9:00 CST! *whew!* Now I have to find time to sit down and watch it!
There were a lot of good points on all sides of this discussion. I would have to say the first thing I thought of is the deal Apple has with elementry and secondary school systems for their computers to be used. It is all a matter of easy advertising. You are guarenteed when you go to the right people. It goes to show you that it isn’t necessarily what you know but who you know.
You know, it’s not the corporate issue that really bugged me – it was the forced subscription to Napster. I wouldn’t want a forced subscription to anything that the use of is completely voluntary and not related to my education.
Contracts for computers, Apple offering programs for schools – none of that bugs me. I’m sure HP donates computers here in the Houston area, or sells them at special education rates. All good. Napster has nothing to do with someone’s education though.
Let’s go Pitt.
\grew up the only Pitt fan in a house full of Penn Staters
I agree that the fees are ridiculous. But then, I think most colleges include costs for items you may not take advantage of. For instance, my school includes fees for the Rec Center and MTD buses. I never took the bus and never stepped foot in the RecCen, and yet I had to pay the same as people who used it all the time.
Technology like Napster might be in a different realm–especially since, as you said, it would be hard to fully take advantage if you didn’t live on campus.
But really, I guess I’m just saying that fees aren’t universally fair to begin with because not everyone gets their money’s worth.
And I think it sucks…
Speaking of making copies, don’t forget to make me a copy of Reloaded. 😉
Ok, Kymberlie – you don’t have to remind me 87 times! LOL! I remembered – I just have to get Mike to make it. My CD burner doesn’t like it thanks to the computer content.
But I haven’t forgotten!