Napster Gone

By Veronica Russo

Since November 15, some of the students and faculty who frequent the Swirbul Library to use the computers have noticed a restriction on what they can, and more importantly, cannot access using the University's Internet facilities.

Henry Saltiel, Executive Director of the Office of Information Technology and Resources, has blocked facilities used to transport Napster traffic. As a result, anyone wishing to use programs such as Napster to send or receive MP3 music files to or from campus will find it hard to do so. According to Mr. Saltiel, the only reason was to reduce network congestion and thereby allow easier and quicker access to Adelphi related services from off campus and any services within the school on campus. In his notice to the University on November 15, Mr. Saltiel stated that, "The Customer Service and Training help desk [had] been receiving numerous complaints daily regarding slow and sporadic Internet service."

It is true that students have often complained about such congestion. However, one student's loss is another's gain. In order to assure that students can have the quick access to the Internet without a disruption in service, the other students must give up something. Thus, the situation becomes a "Catch 22." Mr. Saltiel added, "It is unfortunate, but after investigating various options, this course of action presents itself as the only viable solution." Either way, many students have seen a tremendous improvement in the service. The speed with which faculty and students make use of the facilities have greatly increased.

Some agree that having to give something up to maintain the high quality of the service was the right thing to do. Mary Ryan, a computer science major, says, "I've definitely seen a major difference in the speed of service here. I have no more problems logging onto my Adelphi account." Others however are not so happy about the change. Although, the majority of the students have seen an improvement in the speed of service, students have a few gripes with the situation.

Despite overall feedback from the school commending Mr. Saltiel's decision to block Napster traffic, there are some students who, although they agree there was a problem, do not feel Napster being taking away was the answer. One major complaint, according to Chris Horan, a freshman, is that it, "is a violation of our rights as individuals." To counter that complaint, however, are a few guidelines located in the Information Systems Acceptable Usage Policy for the Computing Center. This guideline is attached to the account request form that is given to each student who requests an account with Adelphi University. One important statement is the ninth one, which states, "No one should deliberately attempt to degrade the performance of an information system or to deprive authorized personnel of resources or access to any University information system." In short, this means that if you have a program such as Napster and it is slowing down the performance of the systems resulting in a disruption, then action can be taken. And that is exactly what Napster was doing.

Students also are speculating that the suspension of these programs had more to do with Napster's current legal problems. Since Napster is currently in the courts on whether or not programs that allow people to receive free music should be legal. (Up to this date the music is still obtained for free.) Some students feel that the school is blocking the access to the programs based on that principle. When I brought up that idea to Mr. Saltiel, he said, "It is not our intention or function to police what purposes people are using our network for."

Junior, Larry Mohrmann is among those who supports the change, "I completely understand why they're doing it," he goes on to say," If it [Napster] slows down the system so the students can't use the facilities, then the others will just have to deal with it."