In an effort to keep college kids from pirating music through their networks, many universities are taking the students consumer actions into their own hands. Universities across the country are flocking to deals being offered by the likes of the new Napster, Real and other media sources for solutions that will meet the college kids somewhere in the middle of the music sharing issue.

Twenty US Universities and Colleges have decided to make their student’s consumer decisions for them in an effort to get the RIAA off of their backs. These higher educational institutions have all chosen to use student funds to enter into massive business deals with the likes of Napster to provide free or reduced-fee access to online music. Apparently convinced that students shouldn’t be left alone in the educational environment without a University-supplied Napster account, trustees are becoming favorable to these deals. In the Fall of 2003 we saw Penn State hop on the bandwagon, and since that time numerous other schools have signed up as well.