Purdue to offer free downloads

Purdue University officials hope to alleviate illegal downloading by students with a new free file-sharing service for students in resident halls. \nThe Ctrax music service, provided by Purdue residence halls, offers free tethered downloads to students on a maximum of three computers. If students choose to burn songs to CDs or move them to another computer, each download will cost 89 cents.\n"I look at it just like a service," said Executive Director of Purdue University Residences Ernie Poland. "We have pianos and laundry rooms and other activities that not all students take advantage of. This is another service we're providing in our residence halls for our students."\nPurdue students living off-campus will receive access to the service, but at a discounted rate of $2.99 per month. Faculty and staff are also eligible, at the rate of $5.99 per month. \nThe service, which should be implemented within the next few weeks, will be included in Purdue's ResNet package. ResNet is Purdue's campus network.\nPoland said the plan offers students a viable alternative to illegal downloads.\n"I think here, just like at IU, we know students are doing a lot of downloading of music," he said. "Through conjecture we determined it's mostly through peer-to-peer networks. Our hope is to get students to do more legal downloading by providing an inexpensive legal alternative."\nPoland also said he thinks the new system will make a difference.\n"I have great hopes that it will," he said. "A lot of students do wonder about what they're doing, even though they still do it and take the chance. I think a lot of them would choose to do it the legal way if given the chance."\nCtrax, the music branch of campus utility service Cdigix, offers "several hundred thousand tracks," according to the Ctrax Web site at www.cdigix.com. Cdigix has already reached partnerships with several schools, including Ohio University, Tulane University and Yale University.\nPurdue senior Kevin Burton said the Ctrax option might be helpful for students living in residential halls, but might be a hassle for others. \n"I think it's good but I don't think anybody is going to use it," Burton said. "There are other free ways of downloading music illegally. I don't live on campus anymore and most of the people like me won't take the time to do it."\nLast spring, five IU students were sued by the Recording Industry Association of America. At least three of those students settled with the RIAA out of court. \nIU English professor Richard Nash said a similar package for IU would be beneficial. Nash advocated a similar program to the Bloomington Faculty Council last semester.\n"It does certainly sound to me like a very interesting idea, and something I hope IU could look into," he said. "My immediate sense is this does seem to be the sort of thing we should be looking at."\nIU junior Karen Esrick said though the service is free to download, the price to burn songs may be too steep.\n"There are usually 18 songs on a CD," she said. "That would be the same price as buying a CD. I don't like that. I think they should make it cheaper."\n-- Contact senior writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.