A benign parasite

ITD should permit students to use Napster

The use of MP3s, music files designed specifically for use over the Internet, has become a very contentious issue. Napster, a software service created to allow users to search for and share MP3 files, has come under fire from several other institutions. This trend must not spread to the University.

Northwestern University blocked access to Napster's Website last December due to concerns about Napster's effect on its computing resources. Napster turns any computer it is installed on into a server - any of the program's other users can then download MP3 files from that computer. Many users leave Napster on at all times. With hundreds of students logged on at all hours of the day, Northwestern found that its bandwidth resources were being monopolized. Prior to eliminating access to the software, Napster was taking up as much as 20 percent of the network's resources. This caused a great deal of slow down on their network.

This was certainly a major problem - university networks are now a vital part of education and administration and must not be subjected to any superfluous drains on their resources. But the University does not have to worry about this problem. The network at the University is much larger and stronger than that at Northwestern and other smaller schools. It is, in fact, one of the most highly rated college networks in the country. Napster cannot cause any serious problems at its current usage level. According to ITD, Napster currently takes up 3 percent of the network resources, a noticeable amount but hardly cause for a ban.

There is no legitimate reason for banning Napster or any services like it at this time. Other colleges that lack the power of the University's network should consider blocking access to Napster if they feel that it is significantly slowing their networks down. Unless the amount of resources consumed by the software grows substantially at the University and begins damaging the network's effectiveness, students should be free to use Napster if they wish.