The decision about the fan-beloved service Napster is a very controversial one. Many have spoke out on support for the program on both sides of the issue. The issue is: Should Napster be allowed to give copyrighted songs to fans for free without paying royalties to the artists?

The compromise artists and Napster officials have come to for now is that users will still be able to download music off the site but artists are allowed to request that they filter out any songs they don’t want “stolen”, as they have put it.

“Those corporate big wigs should take their fancy pants limos, cigars, and exotic cheeses and let us have our music!!” exclaimed sophomore Greg Fry. Many others would agree with him.

Fans have rung out in protest against what they feel is against their right to experience new music, even if they just want to see if they will like it or not. They believe it opens up their minds and will not prevent them from still buying music.

As a matter of fact, record sales have gone up 5percent this year. An explanation for this could be that users of Napster are finding music they enjoy enough to go out and buy the CD.

Nevertheless, at a Federal District Court hearing on March 2, Napster was forced to carry out the Court of Appeals ruling and block the sharing of file names sent to Napster by the rightful owners. Otherwise, Napster would have been shut downcompletely if they had not complied with the ruling.

“The judge has not yet ruled,” stated the website for the program, “but we are hopeful that the court’s injunction, when it is issued, will allow the Napster community to operate while we continue to seek an agreement with the recording industry and transition to a membership-based service.”

That would mean free-downloaders would become customers who will be forced to pay a monthly fee if they continue to share music on Napster. If this happens, which it undoubtedly will, artists like Metallica, who have spoken out against the song-sharing service, will be very pleased.

Other artists not only embrace Napster but even promote it as the future of technology. The Dave Matthews Band has even released their first single off their new CD directly to Napster. However, with all the controversy and uncertain legal action the future of this program seems up in the air.