If not entirely shut down by Monday's court ruling, Napster will most likely start charging its customers. But many students on campus said they would rather seek other alternatives than pay for MP3 downloads.
Napster, a currently free online music service, hopes to modify the current program so that its users are charged a monthly subscription fee as a means of compensating the artists for their music. According to the company, many are willing to pay this fee, but students on campus said they generally did not all agree.
Most students who spoke with The Dartmouth indicated that they would most likely leave Napster and search for MP3s elsewhere.
Tacarra Andrade '03 currently uses Napster, but said she did not think she would continue if a monthly fee were required. "I buy CDs anyway, and I don't rely solely on Napster," she explained. "I just use it as a convenience."
Cody Pietras '03 held a similar view: "The whole point of Napster is that it's free. So if you have to pay for it, you might as well just buy the CDs. I can get 'Yanni Live at the Acropolis' for like eight bucks, but it would take me an hour to download. I'm not willing to pay for that kind of service."
Amy Salomon '01, although not a Napster user herself, also said she believed that the essence of the service was the price.
"I think people are really cheap and they are using it for things that they otherwise would have to buy," Salomon said.
Jeremy Althouse '04, like Pietras and Andrade, plans to discontinue his use of the service if he is asked to pay, but for different reasons.
"There are plenty of other free file sharing programs and when people find out about those, they will turn away from Napster if they start charging," he said.
Althouse then pointed out that other software programs like Gnutella and Hotline offer free alternatives for file-sharing on the Internet.
Russell King-Jones '02 also said he believed that he "could probably find another software similar to Napster that is uncensored."
Not all students, however, plan on leaving Napster if the subscription fees are imposed.
Peter Holoch '02, like others, has not made up his mind. He said his decision would be based on both the amount of the subscription fee and his connection speed.
"Here at Dartmouth, where I have a fast connection, I'd pay up to 30 or 40 dollars a month," Holloch said.
However, following Monday's court ruling, Napster is left with few options. The court did not demand an immediate end to the service, but it appears that the program will not continue for long in its current form.
Napster's founder Shawn Fanning stated after the court's ruling that, "As many of you know, we've been developing a Napster service that offers additional benefits to members of the community and, importantly, makes payments to artists."
