Members of the University community have paid careful attention to Penn State University's innovative file-sharing program launched last November.
The program, which resulted from a business agreement between Penn State and Napster, allows students to listen to songs over streaming audio for free.
"The Penn State program is in its trial stages," said Shirley Payne, ITC director for security coordination and policy. "We've been watching what has been going on and would like to see what the trial shows. Doing something like this takes resources, funds and staffing."
Thus far the program has attracted over 8,000 registered student members at Penn State. Members can listen to any of the 500,000 songs in the Napster library and download them on their computers at no cost until their free subscriptions expire, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Downloading music onto compact discs or portable MP3 players costs 99 cents per song. Over 100,000 songs are accessed daily, the Chronicle reports.
Penn State's file-sharing initiative has sparked some interest from University organizations.
Student Council President Daisy Lundy announced Tuesday she is interested in finding a way for University students to share files without having to deal with issues of legality.
"We are looking at what is being done at other schools and universities to allow file-sharing," she said. "I think that it is important to protect students who want to file-hare."
Lundy added that in a community that values the honor system, it is important for students to do the right thing even when others are not watching.
According to Honor Committee Chair Carey Mignerey, while the Honor Committee does not make blanket statements regarding specific acts, student file-sharing of copyrighted music or software could be considered an honor offense.
"Our standard for seriousness is whether an act is inconsistent with our community of trust," Mignerey said. "With something like file-sharing, it is difficult to say whether or not it is openly tolerated."
Mignerey added the Committee would be interested in a method that would allow University students to keep the benefits of music technology while abiding by the honor code.
"Our policy has been that copyright violations are illegal," Payne said. "We don't want our network being used for illegal purposes."
According to the University's computing policies, industry agencies can contact the University and issue the administration a violation notice.
If it is the violator's first offense, all files specified in the notice must be deleted or ITC will disconnect the computer from the network.
Second and third violators face harsher consequences, including higher reconnection fees.
"We want to help students do what they want to do without compromising their values," Lundy said. "I've gotten great feedback about this so far."
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