Pebbles100
September 4th, 2003, 12:16 PM
As Suits Loom, Colleges Eye Pay-Music Services
Tue September 2, 2003 05:45 PM ET
By Andy Sullivan
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3375651
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. universities hope to sign their students up for online paid-music services in a bid to thwart the illegal song copying now common in dorm rooms, college and music-industry officials said on Tuesday.
Roughly a dozen colleges and universities hope to bundle industry-sanctioned digital music services along with cable television, free newspapers, and other perks of campus life when students show up for the spring semester next year, said Penn State University President Graham Spanier.
"We could make what is now illegal legal," said Spanier, who co-chairs a group that discourages on-campus copyright infringement. "If music is that important to our students, we should provide music to them."
Spanier said Penn State was among those schools currently picking a service, but declined to name the others and did not specify which music services were involved. Service would be bundled into tuition or activity fees and would likely be significantly below the market rate, he said.
The announcement comes as the recording industry is preparing hundreds of lawsuits against Internet users who illegally copy music and movies over "peer to peer" networks such as Kazaa and Grokster. College campuses, with their state-of-the art broadband networks, have been hubs of such activity, music industry officials say.
Many schools have taken steps to discourage the practice over the past year, imposing bandwidth limits, sending warning notices and in some instances disconnecting students who trade copyrighted music. Incoming freshmen at many schools now receive a crash course in copyright law.
BIG FINES
Some face harsher discipline. Four students paid the Recording Industry Association of America between $12,000 and $17,500 each last spring to settle charges that they operated illegal song-swap networks on campus, and RIAA officials say students will be among those charged in the next wave of copyright-infringement suits, which could be filed as early as next week.
Industry-sanctioned services vary widely in price and features. Some such as Apple Computer Inc.'s AAPL.O iTunes sell individual songs that Macintosh users can copy to a CD or mobile digital-music player, while RealNetworks Inc.'s RNWK.O Rhapsody service sells songs for 79 cents, but only after a $9.95 per month subscription fee that allows users to "stream" temporary copies of songs to their computer.
Liz Brooks, vice president for marketing at Buymusic.com, said she was currently negotiating discounts with five large universities and several smaller colleges. Students might get a set number of songs for free or at a discount from the service's usual 79-cent to $1.14 price, she said.
"We're looking at ways to help the colleges have a clear and well-delineated way to push the authorized download services," she said.
One copyright activist who has frequently clashed with the recording industry praised the idea.
"This is a beautiful solution, and I'd like to see it adopted further," said Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group.
Tue September 2, 2003 05:45 PM ET
By Andy Sullivan
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3375651
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. universities hope to sign their students up for online paid-music services in a bid to thwart the illegal song copying now common in dorm rooms, college and music-industry officials said on Tuesday.
Roughly a dozen colleges and universities hope to bundle industry-sanctioned digital music services along with cable television, free newspapers, and other perks of campus life when students show up for the spring semester next year, said Penn State University President Graham Spanier.
"We could make what is now illegal legal," said Spanier, who co-chairs a group that discourages on-campus copyright infringement. "If music is that important to our students, we should provide music to them."
Spanier said Penn State was among those schools currently picking a service, but declined to name the others and did not specify which music services were involved. Service would be bundled into tuition or activity fees and would likely be significantly below the market rate, he said.
The announcement comes as the recording industry is preparing hundreds of lawsuits against Internet users who illegally copy music and movies over "peer to peer" networks such as Kazaa and Grokster. College campuses, with their state-of-the art broadband networks, have been hubs of such activity, music industry officials say.
Many schools have taken steps to discourage the practice over the past year, imposing bandwidth limits, sending warning notices and in some instances disconnecting students who trade copyrighted music. Incoming freshmen at many schools now receive a crash course in copyright law.
BIG FINES
Some face harsher discipline. Four students paid the Recording Industry Association of America between $12,000 and $17,500 each last spring to settle charges that they operated illegal song-swap networks on campus, and RIAA officials say students will be among those charged in the next wave of copyright-infringement suits, which could be filed as early as next week.
Industry-sanctioned services vary widely in price and features. Some such as Apple Computer Inc.'s AAPL.O iTunes sell individual songs that Macintosh users can copy to a CD or mobile digital-music player, while RealNetworks Inc.'s RNWK.O Rhapsody service sells songs for 79 cents, but only after a $9.95 per month subscription fee that allows users to "stream" temporary copies of songs to their computer.
Liz Brooks, vice president for marketing at Buymusic.com, said she was currently negotiating discounts with five large universities and several smaller colleges. Students might get a set number of songs for free or at a discount from the service's usual 79-cent to $1.14 price, she said.
"We're looking at ways to help the colleges have a clear and well-delineated way to push the authorized download services," she said.
One copyright activist who has frequently clashed with the recording industry praised the idea.
"This is a beautiful solution, and I'd like to see it adopted further," said Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group.