"We believe in this area as others that students should take responsibility, and be held responsible, for their own actions," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message. "Moreover, this is more than a moral stance about our expectations that students obey the law; violating this one has very real potential consequences for students."

Given that the College would be required to terminate the network access of students found to be "repeat infringers" of copyright law, Lewis said students should understand the potential great consequences of their actions.

"I think it would be very hard for any student to continue to be educated here without network access, so I think this is the point of maximum vulnerability students face in using Napster to download copyrighted materials illegally," Lewis wrote.

According to Ryan, Harvard will continue to study the issue, particularly because the law has yet to be tested and is unclear in its definitions of what constitutes a "repeat offender."

"We're concerned because it's a new penalty," Ryan said. "Traditionally people feel that they don't need to worry, that 'people won't sue little old me.' But cutting someone off the network doesn't take a lot. It's something we have to deal with, not something we want to do."

Although King said he had not received Harvard's letter as of yesterday afternoon, he said he regretted the University's decision and called it "disengenuous."

"We're obviously disappointed Harvard didn't follow the pattern set by 40 percent of top universities that all banned it," King said. "There's no question that every university understands that Napster's being used to download copyrighted material."