Free music! Download songs from virtually any artist at no charge!

Sounds like a dream come true for budget-minded music lovers, but a nightmare for musicians trying to earn a living.

Less than two years ago, consumers actually had to go to a music store and pay for music by their favorite artists. The other option was to tape songs off the radio or a borrowed CD onto a cassette, often with low-quality results.

Enter Napster, the creation of Shawn Fanning, who at age 18 wrote an application that allows computer users around the world to swap music files over the Internet.

With the debate that surrounds this service, Y-Press interviewed Purdue University students to learn their views on the ethics regarding its use.

All but one of the students are on Napster's side.

Parth Patel, a sophomore in the Krannert School of Management, can be found downloading songs off Napster "a couple hours a day."

"It's a nice program," said Patel, "just to download a bunch of songs here and there {lbra}if{rbra} you don't want to buy the whole CD."

Kuan-Ren Su, a junior majoring in psychology, taps into Napster in search of new music. "Mostly it's just to get more of the harder-to-find underground stuff," he said. "I hear a lot of all those boy bands and pop singers on MTV or the radio. I like to hear more of the stuff that's not as popular."

While Napster is providing free music for many people, not everyone supports the concept. The Recording Industry Association of America seeks to shut down Napster, claiming it facilitates copyright infringement. Translation: Napster helps people commit copyright infringement while not actually committing the crime itself.

Others agree.

"Personally, I think it's a form of piracy," said international student Bhavin Pandya, a junior majoring in electrical engineering. "It causes a loss to the music industry as a whole."

Vandna Handa disagrees. A freshman planning to major in computer engineering, she doesn't see the use of Napster as a form of stealing.

"It's people sharing music with other people," she said. "The difference is only the size, because I could just go give a whole bunch of my friends a CD to copy, and that would be the exact same action. It's just happening on the Internet, which is just so much bigger."

Many people, including Mark Kapoor, a senior in electrical engineering, say Napster is not a threat to the music industry at all; that in fact, it has helped the music industry.

"I wouldn't have listened to a lot of the artists I listen to now if it wasn't for Napster. I think it's really good for small artists as well as the big artists that want to gain more listeners," he said.

Matthew Pearson, a junior majoring in electrical and computer engineering, agrees.

"I think that Napster provides a way to get some relatively rare songs to sample. I like to go on there and check out some artists, and if I like them, then I'll go out and buy the CD or the vinyl," he said.

None of these students relies on Napster as his or her only resource for music. In fact, many say they buy more recordings now that they can sample them on Napster.

"I think that a lot of people go on Napster and listen to songs there. . . . But they don't always have their computer nearby them, and not everybody has a CD burner, 'cause those are kind of expensive compared to the normal CDs," said Kapoor.

"That's why a lot of people go out and buy the CDs after listening to it on Napster. I downloaded Napster after Metallica started suing them. . . . I have to thank Metallica for bringing Napster to light," he added.

"I'm really surprised that the RIAA hasn't supported something similar to this, because it really does help sales," said junior Matt Henkler, a computer science/mathematics major.

"I've found that Napster has convinced me to go out and buy many more albums than I previously would have. (Before Napster), I wouldn't have thought to buy any of these CDs because I had no idea what the artists sounded like."

REPORTER: Stuart McWhirter, 12.