Penn State and Napster Offer 'Free' Music?

Excite.com and CNet report that Penn State University is planning to offer "free digital music listening and limited downloading" to their students..

Rosenberger said students will be able to stream music at no cost. They will also be able to download a song and move it to a digital music player for a brief period of time for free, he said. Students who want to download the song permanently or burn it to a CD, will have to pay "small fee," he said.

The service is said to be based on an agreement between Penn State and Napster, which offers an unlimited listening service to its customers for a fixed money fee. As noted in the quote, these songs are only available for use on the individual's computer, and may not be moved to digital players or burned to CD without additional fees. These songs also expire when service is discontinued.

The service will begin in January and will be funded through an existing $160/semester IT fee the students already pay. Additional information available: http://live.psu.edu/story/4583p

Like many college students, however, Penn State's students already seem to be taken by iTunes' local sharing abilities:

Andrew DiSabitino (senior-civil engineering) uses iTunes sharing through a local network.

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"I don't even know how I'd improve upon [iTunes], it's great," he said.