Harvard Stands Up for Napster

harvardian writes: "Just thought I'd mention that Harvard joined the ranks of universities refusing to ban Napster. The story from our campus newspaper is here."

University list

[chancycat]

Is anyone keeping a list of those major institutions that have said "no" to the filter-Napster requests? It may be something to keep track of going forward. I'm sure the legal firms have a list....

Re:Bah.

[ScottMan]

Hmmm... I'd be careful before fucking with Harvard, Mr. King... Don't they have like a really cool law school or something? Sounds like someone *I* sure as hell wouldn't sue...

A MESSAGE TO SLASHDOT OPERATORS:

[gtx]

YOU SHOULD SHUT DOWN YOUR SERVICE BECAUSE I SAID SO. WHILE THERE IS NO LEGAL PRECEDENT AS OF YET FOR WHY YOU SHOULD, I AM ASSUMING THERE WILL BE ONE WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS.

sure, mine sounds silly, but it's basically the same thing that got sent out to the colleges. And is it me, or with a name like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the DMCA has to be a bad idea? Who came up with that name? I propose a CBCA, or Current Buzzword Copyright Act which makes all dumb uses of current buzzwords inherently illegal.

Re:A MESSAGE TO SLASHDOT OPERATORS:

[GreenHell]

now now, that's not a very proactive idea is it? i'm sure if you networked with some people and let the synnergy flow you could come up with a much better solution that that....

There, stupid buzzwords, can I do I go to jail now? or is it punishable by death instead?

-GreenHell

Re:Bah.

[King of the World]

> I'd be careful before fucking with
> Harvard, Mr. King I'll do whatever I want!

Re:Harvard Doesn't Support Napster

[sdo1]

I firmly believe that most schools ban Napster not because of piracy or copyright concerns, but because of the rediculous amount of bandwidth that such a service takes up. So Harvard has said "We've got the bandwidth to handle it, so big whoop."

And besides, what percentage of Harvard students are regularly using Napster, as opposed to say, any huge state school where the admissions standards might be significatly lower.

Harvard Doesn't Support Napster

[Andrew Dvorak]

Like all media, I must point out that Slashdot is not alone in titleing its posts. The title, while not entirely correct, does catch a visitors attention -- it did so mine.

Anyways, I should like to suggest that this is not an endorsement of Napster nor a bias in favor of Napster, but a stand for what is and ought to be RIGHT!

Something along the lines of the thinking of many corporations or universities influenced by many corporations:

My company publishes photos. Coincidentally, computers can be used as an application to scan and upload and redistribute photos. So I want your educational institution to ban the use of scanners because of the increased probability of somebody scanning and distributing our work.

While obviously ficticious, this analogy is not an exaggeration of how the corporations are influencing the schools.

Though, on the other hand, Napster's primary userbase trades encoded CD tracks, recordings, or otherwise contrary to the wishes of many copyright holders, without so much as contributing money to an artist (often) whose sole occupation is entertaining via their artistic talent.