The problem arose late last year when some universities saw the connections between their own Internet systems and the larger, commercial Internet bogged down by heavy traffic. Officials discovered that the traffic jams were caused by students who were downloading free music by using an application from Napster. It s the pipe between your house and the water main, said Cubbage. The application lets users search for music on the computers of everyone else who is linked to Napster at the same time, blocking the schools primary roadways to the outside computer world. The technology s capabilities haven t endeared Napster to the Recording Industry of America, which accuses the company of encouraging people to break the law by pirating commercially recorded music from the Internet.
Many students feel otherwise.
I m a poor college student, and I can get on Napster and download any music I want for free, said IU freshman Ryan Bruner, a daily Napster user before the school blocked the application last month. It s a pretty viable resource, said Bruner, as he listened to a Keith Sweat recording on his computer in his dorm. When they took it away, we were really pissed off, he said. Bruner set up a Web site and petition drive for students at all 196 universities that he says have banned Napster. Only if a request can t be satisfied that way will it cross the school s pipeline to the larger Internet, he said, greatly reducing the traffic on those roads.