Princeton refuses to ban use of Napster

Responding to a request that it ban Napster use on its network, the University sent a letter to lawyers for Dr. Dre and Metallica on Wednesday stating that Princeton has decided not to ban use of the online music service, General Counsel Howard Ende said yesterday.

Earlier this month, lawyers for the two music groups — two of Napster's major critics — sent letters to the presidents of approximately 20 universities across the nation, asking them to decide whether they would prohibit Napster use by today.

The University's response explains that Princeton is "committed to the broadest possible use of systems" and therefore "will not block legal uses of the entire network," Ende said.

According to Howard King, lead attorney for Dr. Dre and Metallica, the artists' letter was sent to many of the nation's most prestigious institutions — including Princeton, Harvard and Columbia universities, MIT and UCLA.

However, only about half the schools had responded by yesterday afternoon, he said. Several asked for more time to deliberate.

The letters come in the wake of a lawsuit Metallica filed in April against Napster and three universities — Indiana University, the University of Southern California and Yale University.

The suits against all three schools were dropped after they immediately banned Napster on their respective school networks.

King has noted in previous interviews that the language of the lawsuit allows for more schools to be added if any should fail to take action against Napster.

But he said yesterday that, at present, he has no plans to include Princeton in the Napster lawsuit.

Though Princeton has decided not to ban Napster use, Ende emphasized that the University does not support copyright violations and will investigate any specific complaints made about anyone illegally using the Internet music file-sharing community.

Harvard representative Doug Vable said that the university is still considering the letter and will not respond until next week.

Boston University, too, has yet to decide whether it will ban Napster on its campus.

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Most of the other remaining universities have sent letters containing similar responses to Princeton's, denying any legal obligation to ban the software but acknowledging awareness of intellectual property and copyright issues sometimes associated with Napster.

Stanford University spokeswoman Debra Zimwalt said her school is not planning to ban or restrict Napster use. But she said Stanford will investigate if Napster opponents make specific copyright complaints.

Attorneys for MIT also said in their response to King that they would not be restricting Napster access.

King said he was disappointed that many of the universities he wrote would not be banning Napster use on their networks.

"If you know there exists a use of a program which is infringing on intellectual property, how can you ignore it? Princeton is choosing to overlook a problem that they know exists," he said. "Its response seemed like a summary without a discussion of what is right and what is wrong."