No singing of praises for UW on Napster deal

This week, the UW announced it had brokered a deal with Napster and Dell that would provide students with a free and legal alternative for downloading music beginning this fall.

But while the thought of a marriage between the UW and Napster might have some students dancing through the Quad with excitement, others may find it difficult to sing along.

In reality, access to Napster's streaming music library will be extremely limited. Less than 5,000 students living in the residence halls will be able to use the service and only while on campus. If students want to download that music to their MP3 player, it'll cost them extra.

Worse yet, because Napster is a direct competitor with Apple and iTunes, don't expect compatibility with any Apple products - including the ubiquitous iPod.

This will surely come as a huge disappointment to President Mark Emmert who noted in a February letter to the editor, "It is impossible for me to travel without being plugged into my iPod."

We also question where the money for such a service is coming from and whether the rest of the UW's 40,000 students will mind paying for dorm students' glorified radio station. Are illegal music downloads really the source of the UW's bandwidth concerns? What about movies, television shows and pirated programs, which all have extremely large file sizes in comparison to an MP3?

At the risk of sounding ungrateful, it sounds like the UW is simply washing its hands of any guilt that might arise from a future visit by the RIAA by providing a legal alternative, despite substantial shortcomings.

We applaud the UW for being innovative and attempting to present the student community with a means to do away with its copyright-infringing past, but this agreement needs to be put on pause.

Kayla Webley did not contribute to this editorial.