Napster and Gnutella Responsible Use Policies

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News Articles and University Policies regarding Napster and Gnutella

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Introduction

As you probably already know by now, Napster is software that allows users to share the MP3 libraries with each other no matter where they are located. Napster provides a search capability for songs, chat capability for users to communicate in forums of like interest and an audio player.

As you also probably know, Napster has been at the center of much controversy from players involved in the music industry - notably, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the heavy metal band, Metallica. The issue at hand is, is Napster Inc, the provider of the service, responsible for the copyright infringements that occur amongst its users even though Napster itself does not host any of the infringing audio files.

Most informed Internet speculators believe that whether or not Napster Inc will prevail in the lawsuits, the trend towards digital openness undoubtedly will. The protections for Internet service providers provided by the Digital Copyright Millennium Act, coupled with the relative anonymity and ease of distribution afforded by the Internet are likely to make prevention next to impossible.

The Real Problem

The BIGGER problem facing the future of Napster and similar directions of digital openness is not the law, it is bandwidth limitations.

Technical officials at Universities around the United States have reported Internet resource usage to be as much as 75% and usually at least 25%. (See the articles in the Articles section) University administrators are reporting an explosion in network bandwidth consumption with dramatic improvement when Napster access is removed.

Education institutionals are not only struggling with the threats of lawsuits, they are finding their Internet pipes are being clogged with Napster-related traffic. Over 200 Universities in the past two months have banned all Napster-related traffic on their networks. Most others are wrestling with the educational implications of "outlawing" usage over educating students of the problems and encouraging responsible use.

What Can Be Done

Technological solutions are being worked on to provide a measure of fairness across networks for use of Napster. To some extent this can be achieved with current router technology by using rate limiting and/or traffic shaping, coupled with some Quality of Service techniques. It's possible that a ToS value could be applied to the traffic of any source IP address based on bandwidth usage.

Napster: Responsible Use

This site proposes a set of policies and practices for responsible use of Napster, not only on educational networks, but also on ISP and workplace networks. These policies have been determined through an examination of discussions amongst University technical officials and the actual use policies of Universities.

It is hoped these will provide guidelines for other networks trying to grapple with this problem and to users themselves so that they will not unknowingly sabotage this new era of digital openness

Installation
1. Users will be asked to set line speed which varies from 14.4 modem to "T3 or greater". "I Don't Know" is the default. It is recommended to accept the default - "I Don't Know".

2. Users will be asked for a Username, password and e-mail address. These are required to use the program and are kept by Napster. Optionally, you can also supply your address, sex, income level and educational level. It is recommended not to use a Username and password associated with other accounts and do not provide any
additional personal information.

3. Users will be asked if the program should scan your hard disk for MP3s to share. The default is yes. It is recommended that No is selected.

Execution
4. Many users do not realize that closing the Napster window does not stop Napster from operating as a server for files on their hard drives. Users should always exit completely from the Napster program when they are not actively using it. The Napster icon should not be present in the system tray.

5. To disable the server portion of Napster: Select the File->Preferences menu option. In the section on Transfer Settings, limit the "Max simultaneous uploads (per user)" to 0. Each time the application is opened, Napster will ask the user if you wish to reset this to re-enable file sharing.

6. Users should not have more than two simultaneous downloads (and uploads) running at any point in time during normal business hours. After business hours, no more than four downloads or uploads should occur simultaneously.

Uninstalling
7. Run the Uninstall Program which should be located in the Start-- Programs--Napster menu or you can choose Start--Settings--Control Panel--Add/Remove Programs and select Napster from the list. Manually delete Napster Program Folder & its files. The default location for the Napster files is C:\Programs\Napster. This directory contains some configuration information. MP3 files by default are stored in the C:\Programs\Napster\Music directory.

NAPSTER : PRESERVING THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL OPENNESS