Napster prepares to charge for its service

A new alliance between Napster and a German media conglomerate has left students asking not whether Napster will continue to provide its services, but rather whether they will have to pay to use the site. German media group Bertelsmann AG announced Tuesday that it has dropped its lawsuit against the online music-sharing service and instead will work with the company to produce a new site that collects dues from members, passing on the royalties to artists and record labels. Napster, which makes it possible for millions of users to share and download music files for free, has been under legal fire from the recording industry for the past year. Four other major record labels and two artists -- heavy metal band Metallica and rapper Dr. Dre -- have filed a lawsuit against Napster for copyright infringement. In July, a federal judge sided with the recording industry and granted a preliminary injunction shutting down Napster. But an appeals court two days later stayed the injunction, and the decision to reinstate the injunction pending trial is before an appeals panel now. The alliance with Bertelsmann means that the site will charge its 38 million users a monthly fee, expected to be about $4.95. Napster also hopes to maintain a free, promotional component on the site. In addition to the fee, Napster will also provide links to CDNow, where users can purchase compact discs they sample on Napster. CDNow recently merged with Bertelsmann's eCommerce Group. Penn students think the new Napster, which will not go into effect for some time, will not do much to stop people from downloading music files for free. "I think that [Napster] has a right to charge for their service, and I think people will be willing to pay, but they can still get [music] for free, so I don't think it will be as effective as they want it to be," College sophomore Tom Buddensick said. College freshman Chris Bisoni, when asked if he would continue to use Napster, replied, "If that were the only alternative, yes, but it doesn't make sense since it's been free until now." Even if Napster begins to charge a fee, other music sharing sites -- like Gnutella and Freenet, which do not have a centralized server that could easily be shut down -- will still offer file sharing for free. "Why would I pay for Napster when FTP files have been around forever?" College sophomore Melinda Gordon asked. "Who are they kidding?" Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Middelhoff said the company dropped the lawsuit and adopted the new plan keeping in mind the fact that the music industry can't stop the Internet from changing the business dramatically. "This is a call for the industry to wake up," Middelhoff told the New York Times. "It is not enough to fight file sharing in the courtroom." Media experts believe that Bertelsmann's deal provides a win-win situation for the entertainment conglomerate. Whether or not Napster wins the pending lawsuit, Bertelsmann comes out making money. The other record companies are still pursuing their lawsuit, although their representatives have noted they welcome any changes Napster is making to create a legitimate service. Officials from the Recording Industry Association of America -- which represents the record labels suing Napster -- pointed out that the alliance was unexpected since Napster has maintained it does not have the capabilities to monitor individual users throughout court proceedings.