Although prominent musicans differ in their view of the value of digital file-swapping service Napster, the service still contributes to copyright infringement. Some of the undergraduate college students I teach missed class the other night. I'm guessing that it was not a coincidence that they skipped out the day a U.S. federal court had signaled the imminent shutdown of Napster. My best guess is that some of them were making their last desperate downloads of free music from the online music sharing service before the curtain fell.
College students crave anything free, especially food and music.
So those empty seats in the classroom were not a great shock. But school is not out on Napster. Lessons still need to be learned. Nothing in the Napster saga has changed that. Sirs Paul McCartney and Elton John have also been vocal opponents to Napster's model Rival rapper Chuck D, however, thinks Napster rocks, as do Limp Bizkit, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow and Don Henley.