Since an e-mail was sent out warning against illegal Napster usage nearly three months ago, Napster use has decreased, which pleases university officials. Some people still use Napster, however, to download copyrighted files, and so far, they're getting away with it.

Some suspected heavy users were contacted and warned, but no one's access account has been suspended thus far.

Everyone with a Penn State e-mail address received a warning on Sept. 20 that said downloading copyrighted material from Napster or similar programs is illegal and those caught could have their access accounts suspended. The e-mail said any computer attached to Penn State's network could be monitored for violations, although the content of individual computers would not be probed, just the characteristics of someone's bandwidth usage.

An initial scan found that 81 users were possibly violating the rules. Since then, 34 other heavy users were identified.

All responded, either saying they were using Napster legally or promising to stop using it illegally, said Penn State spokesperson Steve MacCarthy.

"The follow-up monitoring has shown that that was the case," he said.

None of the people contacted have had their access accounts terminated because they heeded the warning, he added.

"All of them responded and there's been no further action required."

MacCarthy said the monitoring of the system indicates people are complying with the rules.

"There has been a dramatic decrease in what we perceive as abuses of the system," he said.

The decrease in Napster usage reduced the university's computer network traffic, said Russ Vaught, senior director of the Center for Academic Computing. "This means that legitimate uses of the university's networks is improved for everyone," he said.

And although the network may be faster now, that wasn't the main goal of the e-mail, Vaught said.

"Many people in the Penn State community did not seem to understand what the laws and policies were," he said. "The goal for sending the e-mail was to sensitize the university community to these facts. We believe that they have largely achieved that goal and that a significant portion now understands both the law and policies."

Although some students may be more aware of the laws and policies now, that doesn't mean they are always heeding them.

Manda Mihalko (sophomore-human development and family studies) said she and her boyfriend still use Napster to download copyrighted material despite the university's policy.

"We're just a lot more careful about it now," she said.

When she and her boyfriend download a song, they disconnect as soon as they're done so nobody has the opportunity to download a song from them, which would increase their bandwidth usage.

Adam Silverberg (senior-journalism) said he still uses Napster two or three times a week.

"There's so many people that use it. I'm just one," he said. "I'm not a heavy downloader."

Although only the heaviest users can be identified by the scans, someone who downloads just one song could be caught through another route, MacCarthy said. If a copyright holder notifies the university that someone has infringed the copyright, that user will be referred to the Penn State Office of Judicial Affairs.

"It's always been dealt with that way," MacCarthy said.

He also wanted to remind students of another policy that hasn't changed: that it's still okay to download files that aren't copyrighted.

"It's not that there can't be legitimate uses," he said. "That's why we didn't ban it outright."

Rodney Erickson, executive vice president and provost, who authored the mass e-mail, also emphasized that the university hasn't banned Napster — it has just decided to monitor for violations of a rule that was already in place.

"When we made the decision not to ban Napster at the university, we did so in the belief that faculty, staff and students would cooperate with us if they better understood the potential legal and network system ramifications of using this software," Erickson said.

"I want to thank members of the university community — and especially our students — for their cooperation in helping us to reduce the use of Napster and similar software for downloading files," he said.