Napster fans found an unpleasant surprise in their e-mail in-boxes this morning.

Last night and early this morning, all Penn State students were warned via e-mail that the university can suspend the computer access account of anyone who uses programs like Napster through Penn State's network to infringe copyrighted works.

The mass e-mail came a week after Penn State President Graham Spanier received a letter from Dr. Dre and Metallica's lawyers asking him to ban Napster from the university's computer network.

Dr. Dre and Metallica feel Napster software encourages people to steal copies of their music, which violates their copyright and drains money from their album sales.

Napster representatives could not be reached for comment.

The new policy governs the use of programs such as Napster that can be used to duplicate copyrighted material. Use of these programs to copy non-copyrighted materials will not be banned, Penn State spokesperson Steve MacCarthy said.

The Napster Web site does not make it clear which files are copyrighted and which are not.

"Although it is not the intent to curtail legitimate uses of such software, the university has an obligation to ensure that its networks and computers are not used to violate the law or university policy," Rodney Erickson, executive vice president and provost, said in the e-mail.

Joe Di Cicco (sophomore-film and video) disagrees with the new policy.

"It's none of their business what we do with our Internet connection," he said. "I think people are going to be really pissed off about it."

The e-mail said any computer attached to Penn State's network in any way could be monitored for violations and users should be aware that Penn State has a program of continuous review of network traffic to identify copyright violations.

Erickson said scans will be used to identify very high users that may be running Napster or a similar program to download video or music files.

Penn State can scan traffic characteristics of computers on its network, but the scans will not examine the content of the computers.

"We are not Big Brother looking at what they are doing on their computers," Erickson said. "We are asking why traffic is the way it is. Why it is consistent with that of downloading files?"

About 80 on-campus students and one staff member were identified as heavy users of copyrighted files during a scan conducted this week. Yesterday or early this morning, they received e-mails telling them to delete the files or disconnect from Penn State's network within seven days, MacCarthy said.

If the users do not respond within one week, the university reserves the right to withdraw their access account privileges, Erickson said.

Although the university won't be looking at the content of computers, the idea that they are monitoring individual usage bothers some students.

"That's appalling," said Tara Gerner (senior-secondary education and earth and space science). "That's terrible that they can just go on your computer."

Users can also have their access accounts suspended if a copyright holder contacts the university, accusing the user of copyright violation.

If students want to continue to use Napster for copyrighted material, they must use an Internet service provider other than Penn State's network, MacCarthy said.

However, tech-savvy users may be able to get around this.

"Having it banned won't stop it from being used," Ken Pierson (senior-secondary education) said. "You can dial into Napster through a remote host."

However, university officials hope the policy will cause a decrease in Napster usage, which will speed up the network.

"Clearly, this is something that does eat up a lot of bandwidth," MacCarthy said. Bandwidth is a term that indicates a system's traffic capacity.

Ben Frisbee (junior-meteorology) agreed with Penn State's decision to limit Napster usage because it clogs up the Internet, making it harder for others to use the Web for homework. "They (Penn State) should shut it down," he said.

A survey done by Gartner Group Inc. released last month found that 34 percent of colleges surveyed have banned Napster on their networks.

Some of the other universities who received the letter from Dr. Dre and Metallica's lawyers are responding similarly to Penn State. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, Duke University, University of Michigan and Stanford University won't prohibit Napster use altogether, but they will investigate and take action if they receive complaints from copyright holders, said Debra Zumwalt, acting general counsel for Stanford.