Monday, June 18, 2001- The Michigan Daily - 3
DOW SHOPPING
Students find Internet file-sharing
services to replace costly Napster
A dog walker takes advantage of the shade and shopping offered by Nichols
Arcade yesterday afternoon.
'Fathers n101ot liV ing
With ofsprng Often
hae h chilren
By David Daybik
Daily Steff Reporter
Downloading MP3s through the
popular file-sharing application Nap-
ster has become more difficult in
recent months. The company's engi-
neers have been persistently imple-
menting digital filters and song
identification technologies, sending
fans scurrying for their favorite songs
like rats in a maze. The nunber of
users has decreased considerably,
according to Napster's third consolidat-
ed report of compliance.
"As we continue to comply with the
(U.S.) District Court's (for the North-
ern District of California) injunction,
some searches are not returning results
and many files are not being shared,"
Napster said in a written statement.
Napster has been ordered to block
searches of its index whenever search-
es correspond to the names of copy-
right infringing material.
"Napster's filters are constantly
being changed to more effectively
exclude music the copyright holders
want blocked, and that frequently
results in other music being excluded
as well," the statement said.
University students exhibit a genuine
discontent with Napster's transforma-
tion from a once thriving music-trading
venue to a desolate wasteland of lost
s digital music.
A "Typing in common search titles and
u not being able to find anything at all
y has caused me to log off," LSA senior
- Robert Shereda said. "I lust can't find
the muisic I an looking for."
Despite the fact that Napster has
fallen in the eyes of its faithful public,
numerous peer-to-peer clones have
spawned and are taking the file-sharing
arena by storm,
Although no alternative file-sharing
service has risen to the wild popularity
of Napster - with its once 50 million
user base - many are experiencing
impressive figures.
According to Vulcan Ventures and
CNET Networks, Inc., Gnutella,
MyNapster, WinMX and Music City's
Morpheus are among some of the most
popular and frequently downloaded
file-sharing services available today.
Each service possesses its own
unique nuances, but all offer a similar
"Napster-like" experience.
"People are searching around for the
best one," said Jarvis Mak, senior
Internet analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings.
"They haven't found one as easy to use
and as successful as Napster yet, but
obviously they are looking."
Shereda said he has searched for an
alternative means of gathering music.
"I have tried three different music-
sharing services," Shereda said.
"Audiogalaxy seems to work pretty
well. I downloaded BearShare and tried
Morpheus this afternoon."
Although a significant number of
services are penetrating the file-sharing
market, Napster glances over its shoul-
der and looks to the future with the
possibility of establishing a profitable
business model.
Napster has officially licensed its
service to MusicNet - a joint venture
of RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner
Inc., Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group.
MusicNet is the world's first digital
distribution platform for downloading
and streaming music.
According to a recent press release
issued by MusicNet, three of the world's
largest record companies - Warner
Music Group, BMG Entertainment and
EMI Recorded Music - will permit
their content to be delivered to Napster
as long as Napster is operating ina legal,
non-infringing manner.
Napster users are apprehensive about
paying a subscription fee when free
music-sharing alternatives are readily
available.
"People can always find a way
around it. There will always be a free
way to do it. They have to offer popular
enough artists and not charge an
extraordinary amount of money,"
Shereda said.
The MusicNet subscription service is
scheduled for release later this summer.
By Elizabeth Kassab
Daily News Editor
Dads who celebrate Father's Day
with biological children who do not
live with them are likely to have other
children who know them as "Dad",
according to a recent study co-authored
by a University researcher.
Almost 50 percent of fathers who
don't live with one set of children have
ties to another set of children, and 24
ercent have ties to more than one
other set of children,
The statistics are troubling, said
Pamela Smock, a sociologist at the
University's Population Studies Center,
who co-authored the study with sociol-
ogists Wendy Manning of Bowling
Green State University and Susan
Stewart of the University of Richmn d
1 he challenges, I think, are tugi.
Smock sld
It is ditfiesit for fathes to he etaly
soled and finattisay supporti e it
i tetr ethtldten whso do net live wih tem.n
especially Pt nets sit) toss tonit
The tact t a the childn omti he p c
griphicah spread oat e opletl mri
ti-cs she ,i . l)
results worrisome.
"We live in a society where family i
the most important thing," said LSA
sophomore Manish Kapadia. "When yot
don't have that family, you're not onl
ruining the child but you're hurting soci
ety indirectly." Kapadia said family is th
smallest unit of society, and disturbin
that may upset the rest of society.
LSA junior Melissa LufD said there ar
problems even between children lilvin
with their fathers, who may be preoccu
pied with their jobs. "A lot of people
even if they live with their dads, don
have good relationships with them," sh
said, but added the only person sh
knows well who was raised in a one-pat
ent home lives with her father.
Smock attribtted the numbers in pat
to rising divorce rates and children bot
to unmtoartied parents, trends that hav
been present since the I960s aod 1970s,
if anything, the stuy's tesults ar
etimsersialive, Smtoek satd-.
'fit , slt!dis have shw itthat tme
uiiderreprt Ithteit ltildre n in surv sey~
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