Napster alternatives causing problems at OU

by Thomas Velardo
THE POST

With Napster blocked at Ohio University, many students have turned to alternatives.

OU shut students out of Napster, a music file-swapping application, in January because it was using too much space on the OU network. And it does not appear that Napster will be returning any time soon.

But that does not matter, said Tom Reid, director of Communications Network Services. New utilities similar to Napster have stepped in to fill the void created by the block.

One of the most popular new utilities is Scour. Kurt Obermiller, a sophomore civil engineering major, used Napster before the block last year. He began using Scour soon after it to find music files online.

"You can find any song ever made out there," he said.

According to the Scour Web site (http://www.scour.com), it is a "broadband entertainment portal on the Internet." It allows users to find many different types of multimedia files on the Internet and then to download them.

But unlike Napster, it is almost impossible to block Scour. Napster relies on a central, master directory to locate and to distribute files to users. This method makes it easy to ban because only the master directory must be blocked. Scour uses a peer-to-peer system, Reid said.

Scour uses a search engine-like utility, similar to Alta Vista or other online search engines, to locate and to search for Scour servers. Without a master directory, there is nothing to block, Reid said.

But like Napster, Scour has started to cause problems for the OU network. Utilization of network resources is at a constant 100 percent, with much of the usage attributed to applications like Scour, Reid said.

"People are using their computers pretty much 24 hours a day," he said.

And with 4,300 university computers and 1,700 personal computers in students' hands, this is too much for the network, Reid said.

The very nature of the peer-to-peer system adds to the problems. All computers running Scour are acting as servers. Because of this, other Scour users' computers outside the OU network constantly access student computers, he said.

OU is upgrading the network to help deal with the increased load. Additional bandwidth is being added, to raise the total to 36 million bits per second from 24 million. The upgrade is costly because one million bits per second costs about $1,000 per month, Reid said.

Other network upgrades also are in progress but will not fully be implemented until early next year, he said.

As with Napster, legal questions arise regarding the use of Scour. Applications like Scour and Napster are used to trade copyrighted material over the Internet. These concerns are not what caused OU to ban Napster, Reid said.

"Of course it is illegal," said Jason Kaufman, a junior computer-engineering student. "I myself don't approve of Scour."

But Obermiller is not concerned about the legal issues associated with these programs, nor does he feel bad about them, he said. Enforcement would be difficult and expensive with the vast number of users worldwide.

"I just do it," he said.