In yet another college's attempt to avoid lawsuits, Princeton University has announced plans for a new program that would allow students to listen to music online without fear of litigation.
Unlike the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which harnessed its students' engineering prowess to design a technology that skirts copyright laws, or Pennsylvania State University, which simply contracted with Napster, Princeton is trying to offer music through a much older institution -- the library.
Students would be allowed to listen to popular music through the normal e-reserve system if a new proposal initiated by the school's library system goes into effect, The Daily Princetonian reported last week.
Since the system uses passwords to ensure that only Princeton students have access to the files, it would avoid many of the copyright problems that plague file sharing.
Furthermore, since the e-reserve system uses streaming technology, which only allows students to listen to the music and not download it, there would be no problems with illegal downloading.
Princeton Assistant Music Librarian Daniel Boomhower said he and other staff members were not allowed to comment on the proposal.
While Princeton may be considering the idea of using its library to curtail illegal downloading, Penn is not.
"I think that the issue really requires some University-wide consensus, and I think it's probably beyond just the library," said Sandra Kerbel, director of public services for the library.
No formal discussion has taken place yet, but Kerbel remains hopeful that it may occur in the future.
"I think we'd be interested in working with our University colleagues in discussing the issues," she said, adding that "there are a number of infrastructure as well as copyright and licensing issues that we would all need to look at."
"Our primary function is to support teaching and research. We have not expanded what we have done for recreational web listening," said Marjorie Hassen, the head of Penn's music library.
Other administrators in the Ivy League are more in line with Penn than Princeton.
While the idea came up during an idle conversation, it is not being seriously considered, said Kendall Crilly, a music librarian at Yale University.
"I don't think [the idea] is into the proposal stage at this point," he said.
"I'm definitely not planning to do anything [resembling Princeton's actions] at this point," said Patricia Fisken, head of the music library at Dartmouth College.
Developing ways to prevent music industry litigation is "not a top priority" for the library, she added.
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