Napster, the pioneer of illegal file sharing, will re-emerge in cyberspace on Oct. 29 as a legitimate online music vendor, but many ISU students are hesitant to purchase a service they can get elsewhere for free.

After Napster lost a copyright infringement court battle and was shut down in 2001, Roxio Inc. paid $5 million for the rights to use the Napster name.

The new, legal version, Napster 2.0, has little in common with the original Napster. Napster 2.0 will have the blessing of some major recording companies, free 30 second samples of all songs, access to 40 years worth of Billboard album charts and music videos.

The biggest change reflected in the new Napster — the music isn’t free. Through Napster 2.0, users will be able to buy tracks a la carte for 99 cents a song or $9.95 an album. Another option for music lovers is to pay $9.95 per month for unlimited listening and downloading.

Vic Vijayakumar, former StrangeSearch administrator and former online editor of the Daily, said he does not have much hope for Napster 2.0.

“I don’t think people are ever going to resort to buying music again,” Vijayakumar said. “Free is always better than paying for something you might not end up liking in a week.”

There are other drawbacks to Napster 2.0.

Due to incompatible file formats, Napster 2.0’s music will not play on the leading MP3 player on the market, the Apple iPOD. Vijayakumar, senior in computer engineering, said this restriction may keep people from using the new Napster.

“Realize that people like to listen to their music while jogging from their CD players, while in the car and from their computers,” Vijayakumar said. “Restricting where the music will play from will piss off people again.”

Candace Jones, senior in management, said as long as Kazaa, BearShare and other free file-sharing services are available, college students will not be signing up for Napster 2.0.

“We’ve had the luxury of having free music for so long now,” Jones said. “No one will want to pay for something that they can still have for free.”

Peer-to-peer file sharing has declined in recent weeks due to a litigation filed against people downloading music by the Recording Industry Association of America. But Adam Boeckmann, junior in construction engineering, said he plans to keep using the free service even if it puts him at risk.

“After first hearing about the lawsuits, I thought twice about downloading,” Boeckmann said. “But I haven’t thought much about it since. I do not plan to stop until the free service is not available.”

Lannie Nittler, junior in exercise and sport science, said she has recently changed her downloading ways.

“I have cut down on downloading some since hearing about the lawsuit from the [recording] industry,” Nittler said.

“I just don’t know if it’s worth getting into a lawsuit over, so I plan on looking into the legal version.”

Luke Marriott, sophomore in political science, is not sharing files and is not interested in Napster 2.0. Marriott said people who are illegally sharing files are depriving the work of its artistic value.

“You don’t want to order an original Picasso painting over the Internet,” Marriott said. “It just doesn’t capture the essence of the artist.”

Mike Bowman, assistant director for AIT, said the increase of file sharing music is partly due to the high cost of CDs, but the new Napster gives people an alternative to the illegal downloading and copying of CDs.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Bowman said. “But it’s not an answer to the problem.”