Colleges Take Aim at Napster

Thirty-four percent of 50 U.S. colleges and universities have banned students from using Napster Inc.’s song-swap service on their campuses, said a report released by research firm Gartner Group Inc. Among the 17 colleges that banned Napster were New York and Kent State universities. Columbia, Harvard and Stanford universities are allowing students to access Napster. Gartner Group said Napster is raising several moral and legal issues for the schools as they prepare for the fall session, with administrators quickly making ban/no-ban decisions and writing up policies to address these concerns. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court set the week of Oct. 2 for opening arguments in the trial pitting Napster against some of the giants of the recording industry. The same court last month granted Napster a last-minute reprieve by staying a judge’s order that would have immediately shut down the service, which boasts more than 20 million users.