Napster.com banned at some universities for clogging networks

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2021-09-26 00:30:04

College students across the country are protesting the decisions of several universities to block access from university accounts to Napster.com, a Web site that allows users to download music from other personal computers.

Officials at several schools, including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Indiana and San Diego University, have blocked access to the site because of the high amount of traffic it produces on their networks.

Napster.com allows its users to download MP3 and compressed audio files for use on personal computers. It is different from other MP3 sites because at Napster.com, users download the files from other users' computers instead of a central server.

Officials at universities that have banned the site assert the traffic of incoming and outgoing files caused by Napster.com clog up their networks. As a result, the universities put a block on the site, preventing students from accessing it from the schools' networks.

Greg Jackson, chief information officer at the University of Chicago, said the use of Napster.com "deprived other users of their fair share of the network."