Gartner Group Study Says Napster Use Permitted at RPI
The Gartner Group, an influential technology market research firm, has published a report about the availability on major college and university campuses across America of a controversial Internet service called Napster.
Napster is a service that allows its users to share files containing music and other types of multimedia with each other. As such, many in the recording industry consider Napster a tool that primarily enables users to avoid paying for music that they would otherwise want to purchase on CD.
According to the Gartner report, 17 of the top 50 universities in America have banned the use of Napster. The remaining 33 universities surveyed, including Rensselaer, have not banned it.
This is a big deal because the Recording Industry Association of America won a judgement against Napster that was supposed to shut down the service. The judgement has been stayed by an appeals court, leaving the Napster service available, but not absolving any participant of potential liability for copyright infringement.