In the seven months since a federal appeals court forced Napster to screen copyrighted materials from its service, University students have continued to use their computers to access copyrighted media such as MP3s. While Napster only allowed users to find music, new tools that have taken Napster's place allow their users to find movies and digital images among other forms of media.
The Napster service, which allowed one to download files from other Napster users' computers, depended on a central server that kept track of which users had which files. Napster was able to respond to court orders by refusing to keep track of the places where its customers could download copyrighted files.
The services that developed in the wake of Napster are designed so that they cannot be shut down. Services like WinMX, MusicCity Morpheus, Bearshare, Limewire and iMesh do not depend on a central server to find out where files are stored. Instead, when a user requests a file, the user's computer asks the computers of other users whether or not they have the specific file.
When there was a central server list of files, the whole network could be cleansed of copyrighted material at once by modifying the server. However, the only way to control the new services that do not require a central server would be to delete each of the copies of these programs currently circulating on the Internet.
With Napster's network free of the copyrighted music many students want to hear, the new services are quickly gaining loyal followings. One sophomore, who uses WebMX, said "It's actually better than Napster, because you can get movies, mpegs, and MP3s," referring to other popular media formats.
Nevertheless, as Napster has fizzled, some students have not explored other options.
Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky '04, a former Napster user, said he still listens to the music he downloaded with Napster. He said he no longer downloads new music because he has not bothered to find an alternative software program to Napster.
"The alternatives tend to be harder to use for non-computer types like me," he said.
Last year, with Napster use widespread on campus, University officials declined to police the campus computer network in order to prevent sharing of copyrighted files.
Steven Sather, director of Support Services at the University's Office of Information Technology, explained, "This was not an issue that we were going to get involved in."
Sather said that violation of copyright rules falls under the University's Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities policy, which is overseen by the office of the dean of undergraduate students. Sather also pointed out that it was possible to use Napster without any risk of violating copyright laws, since some music available on the network was put there intentionally by artists who wanted people to download the music for free and listen to it.
Sather said OIT is concerned about a possible shift from sharing music to sharing movies, since video files consume far more computer resources than sound files.
"There's a potential adverse impact on the campus network if the downloading and sharing of movies becomes rampant on this campus as it has on some others," he said, noting that it is too early to tell how widely students will share movies this year.
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