Either it’s the savior of rock `n roll – a modern day Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor – or just a plain and simple thief violating numerous copyright laws. It’s nearly impossible to avoid news concerning Napster and the trading and downloading of MP3s. From making the daily news to being splashed across every major entertainment and computer magazine available on the newsstand, Napster has succeeded in making a name for itself. And depending on whom you talk to, the company has made two names for itself. Robin Hood or common thief? Artists such as Limp Bizkit, Courtney Love of Hole and Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue have publicly supported Napster and other MP3-sharing programs and sites. Love has not only supported the downloading of MP3s, but has also posted over fifty Hole songs on the band’s website. On the other side, you have Metallica and Dr. Dre, along with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), fighting a court war with Napster. The case centers around accusations of stealing and distributing music, as well as violating artist creativity. Napster insists they are doing nothing wrong by providing the software – it’s the fans who are breaking the copyright laws by sharing the music. The company also claims they actually help music by giving fans a chance to preview music and decide whether they like it enough to buy it. The software is most prevalent on college campuses across the country, which comes as no surprise because most Napster users are college students. Iowa State is no exception. The widespread use of Napster has had both positive and negative effects on the college community. Napster user and ISU student Nathan Key, sophomore in sports management, says that having the chance to preview songs prior to purchasing full albums is a major advantage of the software. Especially when you are a college student short on cash. “Basically, my CD buying has gone down,” Key says. “If I hear a new song that came out by an artist on Napster, though, I’ll go out and buy the CD.” He has downloaded over two hundred titles thanks to the controversial program. “It’s like going to a used CD store where you can preview the CD before you buy it,” Key says. Music Stores Then there are music store managers like Charlie Stewart of Peeples Music who have felt the damage done by Napster. Stewart has seen decreasing sales since Napster gained popularity, even though his store is one of the cheapest in the area. He definitely isn’t buying the line that Napster is helping music. “That’s not true. It might be true in areas where people have more money and can test stuff out, but not college areas,” Stewart says. “Let’s face it, are you going to buy something you can get for free? The short-term picture is – hey, I’m going to save myself some money, I can download some bands I’ve never had before. The big picture is that it’s bad for music.” Iowa City’s music businesses have been hit especially hard in the last year with two of its four independently owned stores going out of business. Sal’s Music Emporium, owned by Sal Leanhart, is one of independent stores left. The thing Sal has noticed most since the arrival of Napster is the change in demeanor of his customers. “I’ve heard people say, `Yeah, my roommate never buys CDs anymore, he just burns them off the computer,’ and it’s losing customers like that, even if they were only buying used CDs and stuff, it does hurt my sales,” Leanhart says. Dave Hanson, manager of Iowa City’s Discount Records, has noticed definite losses that he holds Napster accountable for. “When a person first gets on it [Napster] they have a conscience, and granted, they do buy music, but the longer they’re on Napster, the less music they buy,” Hanson says. Though there are artists such as Metallica who are fighting the war against Napster, there might be smaller bands on independent labels that will be the ones who get swallowed up in the craze. “When you look at what it takes to have a band, it takes big money. Let’s face it. When you start making music you just aren’t making music for the sheer glory of it, you’re making music hoping you’ll get rich,” says Barbara Mack, associate professor of journalism at Iowa State. “It raises some real questions on whether ultimately this will stifle creativity or help creativity. Maybe if you don’t have the opportunity or possibility to get rich, your interest in making music will be less.” Stewart also sees sites such as Napster hurting bands, especially those bands who are just starting to build their fan base. “There’s a lot of small groups that are very, very good that have went belly-up for the fact that music buying has went down,” Stewart says. “This is what people do for a living, and if you had a small band starting out and may have a chance if you get your foot in the door, but the door is slammed because people can get your stuff for free. That’s tough.” “It’s not just bands like Metallica. I think the independent artists are the ones who stand to really get clobbered by something like this,” Leanhart adds. Local Bands On the other end of the spectrum are unsigned local groups who will make their music accessible to everyone on the Internet. Des Moines and Ames bands like Heroic Dose, Grubby Ernie and Index Case can all be found on the web site MP3.com, where they use MP3s to promote their music. MP3.com is a site that features both unsigned acts and some national, major label acts. Artists can sell their records through MP3.com and earn pay back earnings as well. Motley Crue and other bands have released songs through MP3.com before the songs were even available in stores. “It’s a pretty huge advantage with people being able to hear what we sound like all the way around the world,” says Darius Hernandez, drummer for Perry act, Shiloh Church. “We’ve got a lot of people interested that way.” Shiloh Church has five of their songs available to download on MP3.com and makes their whole album available in MP3 format on the official Shiloh Church web page. The band isn’t worried about losing record sales due to making their music so accessible. “People often times hear it on the computer and want a CD. It doesn’t seem to be affecting our sales – not that we care right now. Right now, we’re just about getting the word out,” Hernandez says. “Later on when we’re making money off our songs we probably won’t have so many available for free.” RIAA Problems Other file sharing programs like Napster are starting to pop up all over the Internet. Sites such as Scour and Freenet are offering the same services to Internet surfers as Napster. And Napster users such as Key, who have been banned from Napster due to having Metallica songs in his repertoire, are already taking advantage of the new sites. With Napster knock-off sites appearing quickly, and the addition of CD copying technology, it seems the music industry might have a long hard battle in front of them if they want to put a stop to free access to music. “They’ll just have to sue them all,” Mack says. “And frankly, it’s in their economic interest to do it.” Another option for record labels is to drop the prices of CDs, making it more attractive for consumers to buy albums as opposed to just getting on the Internet and downloading the music. “Some of the labels have also shot themselves in the foot by raising the list price up to almost $19,” Stewart says. “When you have to go to a someplace like a mall store and pay $18 or $19 for a CD, I can see why it is tempting to get stuff for free.” Stewart believes that the record labels will do one of two things – change the formats of the CDs so they cannot be copied or go into cahoots with Napster and sharing the profits. Universities react But while the battle rages on in the court room between the RIAA and Napster, campuses across the country are fighting their own wars against Napster by banning the start-up company. Such universities as Ohio State, Texas and Washington are among those who have outlawed Napster, citing problems with connection and slow network speed due to the bandwidth consumed by students downloading MP3s. The Boston Globe reported that in a recent survey of fifty colleges, 34% have blocked access to Napster. Other schools, like the University of Southern California, have limited the use of Napster by its students Although the RIAA has contacted Iowa State and notified them of students using Napster, the college has no intentions of banning the program. Dorothy Lewis, Interim Director at Iowa State, says that there are students being reported and are being contacted. “We have had occasion to know that people are using Napster when we have been contacted by the Recording Association,” Lewis says. “When they have tracked them down and are able to identify them on our campus we have handled those by dealing with them on an individual basis.” Iowa State tends to be liberal in its control over the network. They don’t monitor what kind of files people are working on, assuming the network is being used for the proper academic uses. But if there are noticeably large amounts of traffic coming from a particular few servers, then students might be contacted. Even then, they still wouldn’t be looking into what the students are doing, Lewis says. Instead, they just let the students know it is an excessive use. Since Napster originated, there has been an increase in traffic to the server, but since Iowa State does not monitor the usage of the network, it’s hard to say for sure whether the increased traffic is due to Napster. “We have certainly seen an increase in traffic, but I don’t know if I could necessarily say how much of that or if it is related to Napster,” Lewis explains. For now, Napster is available to Iowa State and people around the world, but that may not be the case in the new year. Napster was ordered to be shut down in mid-July, but the company managed to salvage a stay from a panel of appeals judges just two days later. This has allowed Napster to stay open for the time being. The battle rages on However, Napster still has another court battle to look forward to, this time in the U.S. Federal Appeals Court. Opening arguments are slated to start Oct. 2.The destiny of Napster is up in the air, resting in the hands of a judge. Is Napster really the blood thirsty pirate of the internet that the RIAA and artists like Metallica make them out to be? Or is Napster just a music lover with the intention of giving new bands notice, like it claims to be? You be the judge.