Penn State Students to Get Free Music From Napster 372
Mr. Show writes "Napster and Penn State have unveiled a deal to give faculty and students free access to music beginning next spring. The deal would give students only limited access to downloads, so presumably most of the free music will come through the streaming service that would otherwise cost a monthly fee. Will this help curb piracy on college campuses?" It might, except for students that don't run Windows.
There is no free lunch (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:5, Interesting)
OK, on one hand you've got a point... especially seeing as how this comes on the heels of the largest tuition increase [pittsburgh...azette.com] at PSU in over 20 years.
Then again, lets look at the numbers. Napster charges $9.95 a month for unlimited streaming. The deal is only for the 13,000 or so students in the dorms. So that's around $130,000 a month, not including any discounts the University is getting. So for the 8 months of regular sessions we're looking at around $1 million dollars (again not including discounts) to keep the kids streaming. Penn State's operating budget [psu.edu] for 2000-2001 was over $2 billion dollars, so that million bucks or so is really only a drop in the bucket. At my school we got "free" buss passes and "free" software [pitt.edu] all paid for through liscensing agreements negotiated by the unversity, so why not "free" music as well, especially if it helps the university avoid hassles from the RIAA?
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:2, Interesting)
Exactly. Even if this doesn't stop piracy at all, it gives the perception that PSU is giving in to legal music services, and encouraging people to move away from the illegal ones.
And if there's one truth in all the media world it's this: groups like the RIAA work on perception, not reality.
If this is PSU's way of tossing a can of shark-repellant at the RIAA's lawyers, I don't blame them one bit.
mod parent up! (Score:2)
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:2, Interesting)
Universities are where these things happen.
Things that benefit society are infinitely more important than giving students a refund.
There is a transfer of lunches (Score:4, Insightful)
So the money saved by reducing network traffic is probably more than the 130,000 that this deal requires of the school. Furthermore, I'm sure Napster charged them less than that because it opens the door to other schools. So, the school is banking on less money spent on IT, better protection against the RIAA, and gets great publicity as a "technologically advanced" school. It's more like Penn State is saving money by giving it's students a free lunch.
Re:There is a transfer of lunches (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There is a transfer of lunches (Score:2, Informative)
This is one of the silliest things I have heard all day. As a college student, I assure you that most campus networks (the one here and the ones my CS friends at other schools talk about) are set up to handle much more traffic than they currently get. My school, for example is running 2 T3 lines, so a little filesharing is not particularly taxing on the sy
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:3, Insightful)
Tax money goes to pay for stuff. That's how it works. Not everyone benefits from every single tax expenditure. GET OVER IT.
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:3, Informative)
"
No tax payer money goes to fund the football team. In fact in the 6-7 home games each year the profits from ticket sales and so forth pay for all PSU athletics and then some. The university makes money off the football program. No state money is used. In fact you pay less in state taxes because of the football team.
Also there are no concerts at Beave
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, things really have changed since I moved out of PA. A decade ago not having a Joe Paterno shrine in your dining room was just cause for deportation to New Jersey.
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:2)
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:2)
You do. That's what elections are for. You elect the people that are going to spend your tax money.
Re:There is no free lunch (Score:2)
You do. That's what elections are for. You elect the people that are going to spend your tax money.
If every time that had to spend a dime they had to consult the people, it would certainly waste a lot more money.
Re:Thanks, Mr Insightful (Score:2, Interesting)
They need to charge students $500 per semester so they can be provided with a free X-Box and games. Oh, and another $300 so they can watch free movies.
What fucking robbery. Why the hell is a university buying entertainment services for its students rather than letting them spend their own damn money?
Great, more crap to raise tuition.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I say leave it up to each individual student.
Re:Great, more crap to raise tuition.... (Score:2)
nothing but extortion
Re:Great, more crap to raise tuition.... (Score:3, Interesting)
To those, according to their need.
Ah, the mantra of Socialism.
Re:Great, more crap to raise tuition.... (Score:2)
Sorry.. couldn't help it.
What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why is it that whenever there's a shady deal going down, something that just doesn't sit right, like this ridiculous Napster scam for example, you can bet Microsoft is involved every time.
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2, Insightful)
Lots of your tuition money goes to pay for lots of things that you never use or that will never benefit you. This is no different, and it's nothing to whine about.
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2, Insightful)
The salaries are paid from tuition, state funding, and research grants, not from the extra fees charged for student facilities. And even if you are looking at the money that does go to paying professors as a pool, you get far more out of those few professors you do take classes from than what your percentage of the pool paid them. In the end it works out approximately even; maybe a few cents off here and there. But for a student service specifically designated only for specific set of students, which off
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2, Informative)
Penn State makes WinXP Pro, Office, Visual Dev Studio, etc. free to any student, so there is no one who doesn't at least have access to the proper software for free.
I'm also sorry to state that as a long time Linux user, I still prefer Windows to Linux on the desktop and I don't see that changing at all except maybe to a Mac. DRM will probably become the only pressing issue that woul
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
You're making a big mistake applying difficulty in configuration with Linux to all machines, instead of being difficult on 'your' computer. The desktop centric distros do a fine job detecting hardware for a large number of people. I've never had to configure any of my hardware in Mandrake, aside from installing NVIDIA's drivers. The old hardware was all detected and configured on i
Ho, Ho, Ho. (Score:2)
What difference does it make if the university provides "proper" software like XP to students at no cost? If your computer did not come with that bug ridden trash, it won't be able to run it. There are very few places where you can get hardware without an OS that's really cheaper than the same hardware with an OS.
If you have not gone through the "hell" of desktop configuration, how can you be a long time linux user? If you knew much about free software, you wo
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
We just do whatever Joe Pa tells us to.
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
http://live.psu.edu/story/4583p [psu.edu]
Of particular interest:
Is this service accessible on all computing platforms (i.e. Windows and Macintosh) and different types of Internet connections?
With the current pilot program being tested this spring, the service is only available to Windows 2000 and XP users. With the addition of certain software, it will also run on Macintosh computers.
Does this mean that Napste
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:5, Informative)
itms cross platform? (Score:2)
Working with mac and windows is certianly not cross platform. I've never understood why itms needs to be platform dependant at all desides a play to play DRMED AAC files. You essentially browsing a web site .
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeh, and I'm sure they'd refund them just like the refund fees for blind people that don't watch tv and fat people that don't use the rec. center and crippled people that can't use the pool.
No refund (Score:2)
You (probably) don't have the equipment to effectively use the tampon dispensing machines either, bet you won't ask for a refud on that one though.
Refund? Ha, ha, ha! (Score:2)
Reduccing piracty? The pirates are in charge!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Penn State President Graham Spanier and Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman are co-chairs of a joint industry and university committee that is scrutinizing the possibility of putting legal music services on campus
HOOOO HOOOO! GO PENN STATE!
GO Penn
RIAA!!! HISSSSSSSSSSK!
*so very confused*
I want to know about all the people living off campus. Some people I know don't even have computers of
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Re:What if you don't have a 2K/XP box? (Score:2)
Fun Times with stream rippers (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Fun Times with stream rippers (Score:2)
Sounds good, but ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully someone will come up with a multi-platform interface for the new Napster service. If not, you can bet that I'd be knocking on the door of the CTO, demanding matching funds for iTunes!
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
Because the benefit in question doesn't have diddly to do with the mission of the university.
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
But anyone has that choice. A student can go swim anytime he or she may please. On the other hand, non-Windows users are unable to take advantage of the service. And the same goes for your "new wing" argument. Just because a student isn't a computer science major, doesn't mean they can't use that purty new wing.
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
And, of course, Windows runs just fine on a PowerPC (:
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
My point: your tuition is for the school, not for you.
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
Even if I don't, explain to me how paying for other kids' mp3s is going to prevent unwanted pregnancies or death by AIDS, which are human/social conditions. Not having people die at school is something I'm willing to sling a little tuition money towards. Your not being able to play Britney for free on your windows PC, however, isn't going to keep me up at night.
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sounds good, but ... (Score:2)
Not Free (Score:3, Informative)
Presumably, Napster offered a steep discount on the $9.95 monthly fee, but I'm sure it's not free.
Re:Not Free (Score:3, Informative)
I have a problem with the story here (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a good deal for the students of this University. They will be able to legally get access to quality music in an open format while probably just paying a minute increase in their tuition. Who wouldn't want to do this.
Any of the minority of the students that use Linux should just stick to pirating. The RIAA hardly cares enough about their OS fo choice to waste their money going after them.
Re:I have a problem with the story here (Score:2)
I find it funny that those that claim to be huge Linux fans on campus seem to either spend more time dual booting to Windows or have relegated a computer from computing past as their 1337 Linux box... while their nice shiny new PC is sporting Windows, "'cuz I couldn't play games or do 75% of the things I need to do to graduate" with that Uber Linux boxen.
I use Linu
Re:I have a problem with the story here (Score:3)
Maybe because the PSU students have been kicked around [pittsburgh...azette.com] enough by tuition?
Mac users streaming on campus (Score:5, Interesting)
Since the newest version of iTunes lets you share music across the network, a large number of students have simply opened up their lists for perusing and playing. (Downloading, as far as I know, is impossible.)
Because no one is downloading the files, so clearly is just benefitting from sampling the music (that is, some people will almost definitely purchase CDs when they find themselves deprived of permanent access to songs that they like. -Ideally. I realize I am a bit optimistic), I feel that this should be legal, even though I realize that it's probably not. However, I find it amusing that even though iTunes warns you that you should only share music with yourself -presumably when on some other computer on the network with iTunes- it allows multiple users to be logged in at the same time, and doesn't require that you set a password. So the system has essentially set itself up to be abused.
Use Wine. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Use Wine. (Score:2)
I have to fire up an emulator every time I want to play some tunes?
I'd rather buy music from iTMS and have a player natively compiled for my processor architecture. A player which I also might add lets me put that music on my iPod and take it with me.
What is College for? (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps I'd see access to music as a critical component of college attendance if the college attended were Juilliard.
But in general, public colleges obtain 75%+ of their funding from the taxpayer, not from tuition.
So I'd like to see the students dedicating as much time, effort and money to LEARNING as they do to downloading music.
It is simply a matter of priorities, and the priority at college ought to be education.
And for those who would ridicule the above because you happen to also like music, consider the waste of money because the vast majority of college freshman show up requiring courses so rudimentary they ought to be considered "remedial". Basically, what they spend the first year or two doing, they should have learned in Junior High.
This lack of focus on EDUCATION, which is really what college is for, costs everybody money whether you are a student or not.
Re:What is College for? (Score:2)
Re:What is College for? (Score:2, Insightful)
A number I pulled right out of my ass!
Seriously, how can you just arbitrarily post random statistics without backing it up whatsoever? If you can prove that data, please do, because I have serious doubts that 75% of a university's operating budget comes from joe taxpayer.
While I do agree with you that a large number of incoming college freshman are not very well prepared, the blame for that lies not with the
I hate it (Score:2, Insightful)
If you are going to do something like this make it a fee not something that is included that I can't opped out of.
I get distracted easily. I don't want to have to pay for something that is potentialy going to distract me. To those that say Oh but its included. Yes it is But the school has to pay for it somehow. The
Re:I hate it (Score:2)
Re:I hate it (Score:2)
First Music is very distracting, for some it isn't so. Yearbook is what we would call having pride in our school Which is a good thing.
Second. I do not want a service to be appended to a fee that is ment to keep the computers updated/administered.
Third. Oh lets append to a fee so our students won't do something illegal. Wait thats assuming that someone is going to do something wrong.. Wait thats a bad assumtion. To go ahead and add a fee, a fee that isn't even educa
And the Advantage Is...? (Score:2)
So, instead of turning on the FM radio and listening to pre-programmed top-40 tripe, now you can turn on your copy-protection-riddled Napster app and listen to pre-programmed top-40 tripe?
The only real difference I can see here is that the radio is "free", whereas the Napster deal costs the school money.
Schwab
In a curmudgeonly mood today.
another difference, a prediction and solution. (Score:2)
Another difference is that radio adds are less intrusive than the pop-ups that will surely jump out of the new Napster. I can imagine trying to write term papers while popups cover my screen. I'd first turn the music service off. Nope, still comming. Then I'd unplug the network. Nope still there from a 200MB spool you can't erase. Then I'd drop a knoppix CD in and listen to my oggs in
I'm skeptical (Score:2)
We are Penn State!!!!
As a Penn State Student (Score:4, Insightful)
It's funny that just yesterday our paper ran a feature on how much students here like iTunes and then today say "Napster!" Similarly, last week they had a feature on how a lot of the labs are going to Mac OS X.
Hopefully my writein as a "computer science graduate student" will perk up some ears...
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
It's people like you who give the Mac platform a reputation as "zealots". If you don't run Windows how does the fact that Windows users get a specific service affect you in any way? You're no better or worse off for it.
If you feel isolated, it's because of your persecution complex (manifiested in the fact that you chose to be a "vict
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
What I wrote in about was the fact that I AM PAYING for something I CAN'T USE. Notice clever use of caps.
A person should not be a victim because they choose to use a particular computing platform, just as much as a woman shouldn't be a victim of rape because she chose to wear a trendy short skirt (or at least that's what the rapist would believe).
A computer is a computer, an
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
Examples:
You're signature on a post is "I sold my iPod on eBay to get a dellPod! The best choice I ever made"
You trolled on http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=84290&cid=736 2 112
You flamebaited the "Bic Mac" cluster as being "a publicity stunt like 99% of what apple does" on http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=84181&cid=7354 108
You describe all mac users as over
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
It's not like I'm "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore," I mean, I bought around 200 songs off iTMS, and wouldn't want the shoddy cheap plan PSU plans on implementing anyway - I just think it's bizarre that we're being forced to pay for something that I'm quite confident WILL NOT decrease our piracy.
If anything, it will get people interested in online music, they will use up their quota or whatever they get on this system, and then they will g
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
Re:As a Penn State Student (Score:2)
students that don't run windows (Score:2)
The music industry obviously considers students (and anyone) that don't run Windows (or Mac) to not be part of the market they are trying to sell to. There could be many reasons for this. One might be the cost of developing a media player for Linux, BSD, or whatever other stuff even fewer people might be running at home. So it's probably not cost effective to make the effort to market to that group, given the lower revenues from such a smaller group. So since they aren't expecting any revenues from Linu
Sell? Try again. (Score:2)
iTMS nor napster can please everyone (Score:2, Interesting)
RIAA Board Member On PSU Board (Score:4, Insightful)
There's a member of the RIAA's board on Penn State's Board of Trustees.
That's the reason this is going on. They're charing all kinds of fees to a bunch of students who can't even USE the service on their Macs, and providing shitty DRM'd technology to those who have PCs just so a member of their board can buy another yacht. I think it's rather dispicable.
Re:RIAA Board Member On PSU Board (Score:3, Informative)
And, I guess he's not a member of the board, but Senior Counsel. I guess that means he's responsible for suing grandparents and little girls.
In related news.. (Score:2, Funny)
Penn State Strikes Deals with Napster, Budweiser
Small print: though shalt use Windows (Score:2)
How long before the service is limited to Windows users and you get thrown from campus for using Linux.
Free is no longer what I am after (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to bankrupt the bastards. They had every opportunity to replace their outdated failing business model with a new successful model. Now after 5+ years, Draconian laws, and plenty of lawsuits, life is a bit worse and Apple brought them kicking and screaming into a successful form of on-line business.
Let them fail.
Let a more successful business rise in their place.
It is not called piracy
It is called capitalism.
Completely useless (Score:2)
Having music in a stream selected by someone else is little or no substitute for managing a playlist and a substantial music collection. Do you really think that the average P
Next spring? (Score:2)
More Information (Score:2, Insightful)
After the University of Rochester [rochester.edu] announced last week in its school newspaper [campustimes.org] that students there would be offered legal music downloads starting the spring semester, Penn State [psu.edu] President Graham B. Spanier [educause.edu] announced today that his University has signed an agreement with Napster [napster.com] to launch a program in which Penn State will make Napster's Premium Service available at no cost to its students. [psu.edu] Th
Hey! (Score:2)
Re:Information is already free! (Score:2)
Re:Content versus key. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Information is already free! (Score:2)
Re:Information is already free! (Score:2)
Actually, when people speak of free speech/free software/free society or whatever, I don't think they really mean that abstract concepts like "speech", "software", or "society" would be free. They mean that the people speaking, the people using software, and the people in the society are free.
Information by itself is not free or non-free. It's the people who use the information who enjoy freedom or then don't enjoy it. Now it's fair to say that if y
Re:But it's a catch-phrase! (Score:2)
Re:Information is already free! (Score:2)
Re:Not ironic at all (Score:2)
Then he's not paying attention, or is blinded by his biases. If anything copyleft illustrates the versatility and power of copyright laws. After all, people have the option of BSD-style licenses, which are far weaker than the GPL, and convey far more power to end users -- yet they are far less popular than the GPL.
Re:wine (Score:5, Funny)
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides By the inequities of Microsoft Windows and the tyranny of Bill Gates. Blessed is he who, in the name of open source and good will, Shepherds the newbie through the screens of blue, For he is trulely a computer scientist, and the finder of lost productivity. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger Those who spread virii and worms throughout my networks. And you will know my name is the Guru when I lay my code upon thee."