“Cornell students have developed a love-hate relationship with the Napster online music service: A lot of them love it, and a few hate it. Whether the Napster service is continued is very much up in the air, with several other services being considered. But in the meantime, it seems to be saving bandwidth,” Bill Steele writes for The Cornell Chronicle.

“Since early fall, students have had free use of the Napster service. A campus-wide site license, mostly paid for by an anonymous corporate donor, provides students with streaming and downloading access to the company’s library of more than a million songs for the school year that began in September 2004, along with access to interactive, commercial-free radio stations, six decades of Billboard’s chart information and an online magazine,” Steele writes.

MacDailyNews Take: “Mostly paid for by an anonymous corporate donor?” Any guesses?

Steele continues, “The free trial is available only to students, not faculty or staff. As of Dec. 13, 100 days after the start of the service, Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) reported that 8,955 students, or about 60 percent of the eligible student population, had signed up. New registrations continue at the rate of about 13 a day. Over 5.9 million tracks have been played, stored and streamed to date, averaging 5.6 tracks per student per day.”

“Napster uses Microsoft’s digital rights management system, which causes the music files to ‘expire’ when the user ceases to subscribe to the service. To retain a track permanently or burn it on a CD the user must pay the usual 99 cents per track. Napster is available only to computers running the Microsoft Windows XP and 2000 operating systems, and is compatible with about 60 brands of portable digital players that use the Microsoft system. That does not include the popular iPod,” Steele reports. “While many students have said they are very pleased with the system, Dean of Students Kent Hubbell says that in his experience, Mac users are ‘uniformly unhappy.’ He said that whatever system is adopted should be available to all members of the campus community. Also, he said, there are a few students who dislike on principle the idea that access to the music is temporary, expiring at the end of the program.”

Steele reports, “Cornell has been approached by several other vendors, according to Robert J. Bourdeau, assistant director of marketing for CIT. ‘At this time we’re still wide open,’ he said. The university had approached Apple Computer about finding some arrangement to use its iTunes service, but Apple so far has no special program for universities.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: “Apple so far has no special program for universities?” Well then, what’s this? Oh yeah, it’s an article we posted on April 28, 2004 entitled, “Apple launches ‘iTunes on Campus’ institutional site license program.” Sounds like a disconnect going on somewhere here. If the university approached Apple, do you think Apple just plain forgot to tell them about the “iTunes on Campus” program? Who’s playing dumb, Apple or Cornell? Links for your enjoyment, which we found quite easily online with three mouse clicks:
http://www.apple.com/education/itunesoncampus/
http://www.apple.com/education/itunesoncampus/features.html
http://www.apple.com/education/itunesoncampus/akamai.html
http://www.apple.com/education/itunesoncampus/faq.html

Some highlights:
Q: What is the iTunes on Campus program?
A: The iTunes on Campus program helps universities provide students with a way to download music from the Internet, legally. Universities can license the iTunes application from Apple for free and allow students to download the iTunes application directly from the campus network. In addition, universities can purchase songs for their students at volume discounts and provide each student with say, 5 or 10 free songs. Schools can also earn money by sending traffic to iTunes and earning a commission on every sale by participating in the iTunes Affiliates Program.

Q: What is iTunes?
A: iTunes is Apple’s digital music jukebox application with the #1 music download store inside.

Q: What are the benefits to my university?
A: Many higher education institutions are searching for ways to reduce their liability associated with music piracy on campus. The iTunes on Campus site license provides concerned universities with an easy and no cost way to encourage students to use legal music services. In addition, schools can earn money by sending traffic to iTunes and earning a commission on every sale through the iTunes Affiliates Program.

Q: Why is iTunes a good option for students?
A: With iTunes on Campus, you can offer your students the most full-featured digital music jukebox with the market-leading iTunes Music Store inside. iTunes features Apple’s legendary ease of use for both Mac and PC users and provides the most integrated and flexible digital music experience available.

So, how ’bout we cut the crap and demand to know what exactly is going on at Cornell University and why they are denying their many iPod-using students the best online music option, Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and excluding their many Apple Macintosh-using students from having any access at all?

Robert J. Bourdeau, assistant director of marketing: rjb52@cornell.edu
Kent Hubbell, Dean of Students: klh4@cornell.edu

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Cornell University wrestles with Napster’s exclusion of Mac and iPod-using students – September 08, 2004
Why are Cornell’s Mac students being forced to pay for useless Napster? – September 07, 2004