The third campus forum on music downloading, like its two predecessors, produced no answers. But it just might have come a bit closer to defining the question -- perhaps because, for the first time, the panel included a student.

The forum was timely, since the university's "free trial" of Napster will expire May 30. The student assembly has decided, in effect, not to decide about renewal, saying that the cost of a music service ought not to be borne by students through the student activities fee. Arrangements for students to subscribe individually, but at a discount, are being discussed.

The "Downloading III" forum, April 20 in Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall, was co-sponsored by the University Computer Policy and Law Program and Dean of Students Kent Hubbell. The panel included Kwame Thomison '07, Brad Vaughn of the music service Ruckus, and Chris Palmer from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Tarleton Gillespie, assistant professor of communication, moderated. A video of the forum is available at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/ucpl.

Napster uses Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) system, but because Microsoft and Apple are competitors, Napster's music tracks can't be played on Apple's iPod. But "as you walk across the campus," Thomison said, "you see more of those little white earphones than eyeglasses." Apple's iTunes Music Store works with the iPod but, in Thomison's opinion, is too expensive. In addition, he said, most of the DRM systems do not allow a user to mix, edit, copy and paste. "You have to use it the way they want you to."

Consumers want affordability, portability and quality, he said, and "So far, none of the services offer more than two of the three."

Palmer noted that one service offers all three: KaZaa, a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. The problem, he said, is that free distribution gives songwriters and performers no incentive to keep producing music. He suggested a system of "collective licensing" similar to the one used for radio and television airplay.

Vaughn said that music services are losing money because of the problem of "competing with free." He concluded with, "We're trying ... The challenge is, how are we going to make Kwame happy?"

In closing, Thomison suggested that market forces would eventually resolve the problem, because users would become dissatisfied with the deficiencies of the legal downloading services and stop using them.