Napster debate comes to PennForum

Napster, the controversial Internet music site, has been the talk of university presidents, Supreme Court justices and major news magazines over the last months. So it's only fitting that approximately two dozen Penn students entered the fray last night by taking part in an open forum, which allowed those involved to learn how they might be affected by the fierce national debate. "What Napster would do in theory is change the way the music industry works economically," said Polk Wagner of Penn's Law School. The Napster debate is currently a particularly important one at Penn. University President Judith Rodin received a letter last week from the attorneys of rap artist Dr. Dre and heavy metal band Metallica requesting that Penn block access to the music-sharing service. Penn has until Friday to make a decision. Yesterday's forum was organized by PennForum, a student group that sponsors debates on current events. It featured among its panelists a Penn Law School professor, an Information Security officer, a member of Penn's American Civil Liberties Union and a student musician. College senior Michael Bassik, the chairman of the Undergraduate Assembly, moderated the event. Napster allows its approximately 23 million users -- a large portion of whom are college students -- to share music for free. The service has raised many copyright and intellectual property rights issues. Issues raised at the debate include the changing situation of the music industry in response to MP3s and Napster, whether file or music-sharing on the Internet can be regulated and where the University might be heading in its policy. The panelists, by and large, agreed that it would be far too harsh for the University to intervene in students' rights to download the files, especially since Napster can be used to promote garage bands and expose budding artists -- like a Penn student -- to a large audience. "You never know but the person down the hall may have recorded music and might now be on Napster," said College junior Jed Gross, the rapid response task force coordinator for PennForum. And College sophomore Arshad Hasan, the representative for the ACLU, said he felt banning Napster would be an overreaction as it "is used for perfectly legitimate uses." In fact, he said he has bought more CDs and attended more concerts since he began using Napster. From a legal perspective, Wagner said the University could stand to lose a significant amount of money if it ignores the debate. That said, he predicted that the University will postpone any immediate action and wait until the issue is settled in the courts. Not everyone who attended the forum supported Napster, however. College freshman Adam Alalouf, a musician, said he is ideologically opposed to downloading music for free, saying that musicians need economic support from listeners. As Bassik told the crowd that 58 percent of college students have used Napster to download music, and that 12 percent will no longer purchase CDs, the panel discussed how record companies may have to change their strategies and embrace MP3 technology rather than try to restrict it. However, as accessible as Napster might make free music, Dave Millar, an ISC officer on the panel, warned that his department will explore any allegation of copyright infringement committed by students, for it is, he pointed out, a "violation of Penn policy to use Napster and download music."