By Todd Belie
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA, along with everyone else, has taken a side in the ongoing
Napster controversy.
Along with several other universities, UCLA has decided not to
restrict students from accessing the music-sharing Web site.
The decision made by the UC Office of the President comes in
response to letters sent by attorney Howard King on behalf of
musicians Dr. Dre and Metallica asking the university to block
Napster from university computer networks.
“Given the fact that Napster technology may be used for
legitimate purposes and that the university does not monitor the
use of its electronic systems, we see no justification for a
blanket block on access to Napster technology,” said UC
General Counsel James E. Holst in a response to King’s
request.
UC spokesman Chuck McFadden refused to comment any further.
In the request, King writes, “I believe that you can
easily recognize the irony of encouraging your students to
matriculate in the creative arts, while engaging in behavior which,
if unchecked, will make it impossible for those students to earn an
income from their future creative effort.”
King, himself a graduate of UCLA, expressed his dismay at the
university’s decision.
“I’m disappointed that UCLA didn’t follow the
example of over 40 percent of universities and stop this copyright
infringement,” King said.
He also discussed the impact of the decision on UCLA’s
academic environment.
“It’s like the guy who says “˜Don’t do
this’ but then winks his eye,” King said.
“It’s setting a horrible example, especially at
UCLA.”
“They won’t let you copy a copyrighted book in
Ackerman but they’ll let students download copyrighted songs
using the university’s computer system,” he
continued.
Napster, which began in May 1999, offers a free downloadable
program from their Web site that allows an estimated 20 million
Internet users to exchange music files with each other without
paying the recording artists or their labels ““ an action the
legal implications of which have yet to be decided.
Napster representatives lauded the UC’s action.
“These letters are a heavy-handed attempt by
Metallica’s lawyers to increase university bans as part of
their effort to shut down Napster. Students who engage in
person-to-person file sharing are not copyright infringers,”
a Napster official said.
“We hope that while the litigation is pending, schools
would not be intimidated by Metallica and limit the freedom of
students to participate in the Napster community,” said the
official, who declined to give her name for legal reasons.
The Napster controversy is not being handled uniformly
throughout the academic community.
While universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Stanford and Princeton have refused to ban the site,
several other prominent universities around the nation have agreed
to the request to have Napster blocked from campus computers.
Included among these universities are Pepperdine, New York
University, Brown and the University of Chicago.
In April, attorneys filed a suit against Napster and also named
Yale, USC and Indiana University as co-defendants.
In July, courts ordered Napster to stop allowing copyrighted
songs from being downloaded from their site. That ruling was stayed
until Napster has its day in court in early October.