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By Todd Belie

Daily Bruin Contributor

UCLA, along with everyone else, has taken a side in the ongoing Napster controversy.

Along with several other universities, UCLA has decided not to restrict students from accessing the music-sharing Web site.

The decision made by the UC Office of the President comes in response to letters sent by attorney Howard King on behalf of musicians Dr. Dre and Metallica asking the university to block Napster from university computer networks.

“Given the fact that Napster technology may be used for legitimate purposes and that the university does not monitor the use of its electronic systems, we see no justification for a blanket block on access to Napster technology,” said UC General Counsel James E. Holst in a response to King’s request.

UC spokesman Chuck McFadden refused to comment any further.

In the request, King writes, “I believe that you can easily recognize the irony of encouraging your students to matriculate in the creative arts, while engaging in behavior which, if unchecked, will make it impossible for those students to earn an income from their future creative effort.”

King, himself a graduate of UCLA, expressed his dismay at the university’s decision.

“I’m disappointed that UCLA didn’t follow the example of over 40 percent of universities and stop this copyright infringement,” King said.

He also discussed the impact of the decision on UCLA’s academic environment.

“It’s like the guy who says ‘Don’t do this’ but then winks his eye,” King said. “It’s setting a horrible example, especially at UCLA.”

“They won’t let you copy a copyrighted book in Ackerman but they’ll let students download copyrighted songs using the university’s computer system,” he continued.

Napster, which began in May 1999, offers a free downloadable program from their Web site that allows an estimated 20 million Internet users to exchange music files with each other without paying the recording artists or their labels – an action the legal implications of which have yet to be decided.

Napster representatives lauded the UC’s action.

“These letters are a heavy-handed attempt by Metallica’s lawyers to increase university bans as part of their effort to shut down Napster. Students who engage in person-to-person file sharing are not copyright infringers,” a Napster official said.

“We hope that while the litigation is pending, schools would not be intimidated by Metallica and limit the freedom of students to participate in the Napster community,” said the official, who declined to give her name for legal reasons.

The Napster controversy is not being handled uniformly throughout the academic community.

While universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Princeton have refused to ban the site, several other prominent universities around the nation have agreed to the request to have Napster blocked from campus computers.

Included among these universities are Pepperdine, New York University, Brown and the University of Chicago.

In April, attorneys filed a suit against Napster and also named Yale, USC and Indiana University as co-defendants.

In July, courts ordered Napster to stop allowing copyrighted songs from being downloaded from their site. That ruling was stayed until Napster has its day in court in early October.