"If people can't distribute music freely from Napster, other services will step up, and the use of Napster will go down. I don't plan on paying for my MP3s," said Travis J. Schedler '01.

The agreement comes a month after Harvard and other universities decided to reject a request from a lawyer representing Metallica and Dr. Dre to block Napster access on their computer networks.

The lawyer, Howard E. King, has said in interviews that despite Harvard's response, he would still try to convince the University to restrict students from visiting the site.

"We're going to try to keep a dialogue with these universities, maybe point them to some authority that they've ignored or are not aware of that tells them they have a higher responsibility than just putting their heads in their sand," he said shortly after Harvard announced its decision.

King would not rule out legal action.

Last spring, King added five schools that allowed students to access Napster to a lawsuit against the service.

King could not be reached for comment about the Bertelsmann deal yesterday.

However, other major players in the battle against Napster began to soften their rhetoric, hoping the Bertelsmann deal would lead to an industry-wide settlement.