FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 10, 2000 Contact: Mark Bruhn Office of the VP for IT & CIO 812-855-0326 mbruhn@indiana.edu

INDIANA UNIVERSITY INSTALLS FILTERS PREVENTING USE OF MP3 MUSIC SITE

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA — Indiana University will filter all IU network traffic related to a popular MP3 music Website called Napster.com and related applications that will block access to them.

Network usage analysis has shown that the use of this particular computer application is consuming a very significant amount of IU's connection to the Internet and affecting IU's data network that supports teaching, learning and research at IU. Internet bandwidth is an expensive commodity and the ability to use it for these services has to be preserved.

Indiana University Information Technology Services continuously monitors the amount of traffic on the University's data networks. Mark Bruhn, IU's Information Technology Policy Officer, said "Since early November 1999, usage of IU's Internet connections has increased dramatically, and this can be attributed primarily to traffic from computers in the Halls of Residence and Greek Houses on the Bloomington campus. A significant amount of the increase in this traffic was due to the use of Napster."

Users who have installed Napster on their workstation should also be aware that this program, and others like it, can easily be modified in ways that could compromise the security of personal files on the workstation and the integrity of the campus network and other computing resources. Many users are also unaware that the Napster client actually turns their desktop computers into Internet servers.

In accordance with Indiana University's Information Technology Facilitative/Fair Usage Policy (http://www.itpo.iu.edu), the University will filter further use of this application. Attempts to circumvent filters implemented to support institutional policies and security are in violation of University policy.

IU students, faculty, or staff that are required to share or collect music files as part of their academic or employment activities are encouraged to contact their campus computing support center to discuss their needs and to make appropriate arrangements to facilitate their activities. This decision will also be regularly reviewed in consultation with student groups as technology changes.