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Napster Gags University Over Fees
A. S. Bradbury writes "The Register reports that Napster is trying to prevent Ohio University from discussing details of its contract (such as the price). In order to gauge interest for the service, Ohio University posted a survey asking if students would be willing to pay $3 a month in order to opt-in to the service. Sean O'Malley, spokesman Communication Network Services at OU says "Napster called us today and said we should not publicize the details or discuss our contract." Penn State and the University of Rochester both currently have a contract with Napster, but are paying for the service with money that could be used elsewhere, rather than allowing students to opt in."
As far as I know almost all colleges enter into secret backroom deals with software and operating system companies. This has two good effects for the colleges.
A: They don't have to explain to alumni why they spent a million rupees on frivolous software.
B: The people making the purchases don't get lynched for all the stupid mistakes they make.
What really stinks is that most colleges are at least partially state funded, and they protect these records from public scrutiny. It's a sucky deal, but no more sucky than the books that won't even be used that students are told to buy.
On an off topic note, does it make anyone else sick seeing the amount of IT classes that are taught through power point presentations rather than proffessor insight. If I never see a piece of crap programming book with by Thompson again it will be too soon!
With all that spyware? Christ almighty.
LimeWire is cross-platform. You can use it on Windows, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, or OS X.
I shiver to think that someone would believe that a Macintosh "computer" would own me.
-Jem