p2pnet - rss feed: Penn State, where everyone’s happy
Roxio’s Napster II has successfully penetrated the American school system. That makes Roxio happy. And so it should be. Napster is a commercial product and on that level, the people responsible for marketing it have pulled off a brilliant commercial coup.
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is also happy. Very. One way or another, its owners - the soon to be Big Four (and maybe Big Three) record labels - will in effect get exposure for their product at schools across the US, not to speak of all the positive ink they’re generating.
Penn State U president Graham Spanier, who’s been one of the prime movers from the beginning, is also happy. He’s largely perceived as having been involved in an innovative solution to a problem which, thanks entirely to the bloody-mindedness of the record labels and their RIAA, has plagued learning institutions throughout America.
It’s called p2p file sharing.
However, not nearly as happy are thousands of students across the US - particularly those victimized and ultimately sued by the RIAA during the ongoing subpoena campaign which, not at all incidentally, cowed school authorities into dealing with the music industry in the first place.
In the meanwhile, as the Napsterization of Penn proceeds, several interesting questions are left begging:
- What kind of data (if any) will be collected from students as a part of them being able to access Napster music?
- Will these data be shared with any entitiy outside of school authorities?
- If, indeed, Penn students wanted a commercial service in the first place, did they have a list of possibilities to choose from?
- If so, which other services were put forward as possibilities and/or was there some kind of ‘bidding’ process?
- If not, who decided Napster was the only ‘choice’ ?
Spanier says Penn will, "make Napster’s Premium Service available at no cost to its students" from "part of the information technology fee that Penn State already has in place".
Actually, the students (and/or their parents) will, in fact, pay for Napster as part of their IT fee. That being so, will there be corresponding reductions in other IT services?
The big question is, however:
How could this have happened in the first place? Is a school a music industry marketing / test-bed, or a place where people go to learn?
Yes, there are all kinds of other commercial entities on campuses. But many of them, such as banks and book stores, are necessary in the 21st century. And the others didn’t get onto the grounds by all-but blackmailing the school authorities.
In fact, it’s hard not to think of the RIAA/online music deal in the same light as organized crime protection rackets: you know, where the hoodlum goes into the corner store and offers to make sure no one breaks any windows - for a small monthly fee.
