This bit on legal Napster downloading raises the possibility of such a program being at Berkeley some day.

Officials at San Jose State University and University of California-Berkeley applauded the Napster-Penn State program as a sign of progress in once-contentious relationships between educators and the recording industry. But they aren't planning on rolling out similar services soon.

``UC-Berkeley does not have a student technology fee to use as part of the full site license the way Penn State does. We are not looking at any additional student fees due to the large increase in tuition costs in California this year,'' wrote chief information officer Jack McCredie in an e-mail. ``However, we will certainly follow the Penn State pilot very closely. If our students would like such a site license and be willing to fund it in some way, I'm sure we could implement it quickly.''

Good answer. But someday perhaps this will work out. Certainly Berkeley, massive University that it is, would be a big win in the anti-downloading wars.Email This Post!