Posted on 07/06/2006 9:36:06 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Colleges Offer Music Downloads, But Their Students Just Say No; Too Many Strings Attached
As a student at Cornell University, Angelo Petrigh had access to free online music via a legal music-downloading service his school provided. Yet the 21-year-old still turned to illegal file-sharing programs.P<>
The reason: While Cornell's online music program, through Napster, gave him and other students free, legal downloads, the email introducing the service explained that students could keep their songs only until they graduated. "After I read that, I decided I didn't want to even try it," says Mr. Petrigh, who will be a senior in the fall at the Ithaca, N.Y., school.
College students don't turn down much that's free. But when it comes to online music, even free hasn't been enough to persuade many students to use such digital download services as Napster, Rhapsody, Ruckus and Cdigix. As a result, some schools have dropped their services, and others are considering doing so or have switched to other providers.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
There's also the problem of compatibility: The services won't run on Apple Computer Inc. computers, which are owned by 19% of college students, according to a 2006 survey of 1,200 students by the research group Student Monitor. In addition, the files won't play on Apple iPods, which are owned by 42% of college students, according to the survey.
What percentage of installed base was that??? 19%?
Mac installed base PING!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
imagine a product of cornell acting as if he had an original thought.
Of course, many college kids also have iPods (and that's probably even more common with kids with Macs), and they have access to legal music d/ls. Soooo, that means that Wintel-usin' college kids are probably disproportionately responsible for music piracy. But hey, they should be let off with a warning, since they have to suffer with their computer systems. ;')
Do the songs then disappear, honor system, or what? That makes me suspect the biggest complaint is the system is not Mac compatible.
The files from Napster and other subscription services use DRM technology to make them expire at some point.
I suppose you could extract them or change their format, but it would be a major, major pain.
I don't know. I suspect that the systems were "subscription" services that the colleges maintained that required a current student password... once the student's password was removed from the system, the ex-student's access to the songs would no longer work.
] If they play on your computer, you can change the format... Anything that goes through your sounnd card can be rerecorded to wav or MP3... But as you pointed out, it is sorta a pain in the butt..
Polderbits (www.polderbits.com) will record any sound that goes through a sound card.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.