UW signs downloading deal with Napster

UW students will be able to legally download songs without fear of prosecution by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) -- thanks to a partnership between the UW, Napster music service and Dell.

Beginning autumn quarter the approximately 4,975 residence hall students will have free access to Napster's basic service, which allows users to listen and download all Napster music files to their computers on the UW server.

The agreement also includes the installation of 10 Dell PowerEdge servers to use solely for storing the music downloads. The new servers will take pressure off the UW computer network, by displacing student downloading to the new system, said director of client services in computing and communications, Oren Sreebny.

While Napster has similar partnerships with 13 other universities, the UW is the first university nationwide to include a hardware provider in the agreement.

Details of the contract, including how much the UW is paying in order to provide the free service to students, are unknown due to confidentiality agreements with Napster and Dell, said Norm Arkans, UW executive director of media relations and communications.

However, because the UW is a public, state-funded institution the University is subject to the state's open record laws.

"There are provisions in the contract that deal with the confidentiality of the agreement," said Arkans. "But there are also provisions that acknowledge we are subject to state public records law."

The UW has notified both Napster and Dell that at least two public records requests have been submitted to the UW Office of Public Records, said Arkans.

"Under the public record law [Napster and Dell] have the right to ... go into court and argue why the information would damage them if released," said Arkans. "If the judge agrees then we don't have to release [the contract]."

Arkans said the UW hopes to know the companies' plans by the end of the week.

The UW sought the contract to keep up with changes in technology due to media distribution.

"Music is very important to lots of people, including students, but it has had a very contentious set of issues around it for many years," said Sreebny. "This is one avenue that might provide some direction for moving forward."

The new service will also help secure the UW network and student computers from outside dangers in the computer world.

"One of disadvantages of students going out on peer-to-peer networks is they don't have any idea where those files come from," said Sreebny. "At least with this service people know what they are getting and where it came from."

The initial contract only covers residence hall students, who can use the service anywhere but are limited to three computers, but expansion to include the entire UW populace is in the works.

"We are discussing with Napster how to make it more widely available to the rest of students and also to faculty and staff," said Sreebny. "But that most likely will not be free."

Some concern has been raised because the Napster service will not work on Macintosh computers or iPods, both widely used on campus.

"We are very interested in providing cross-platform solutions," said Sreebny. "We have been talking for the same length of time with Apple, but the problem is there is no program for us to take part in. We are still talking [with Apple] and would like it if they would provide a campus program."