The poster had to be too good to be true.
As part of his campaign for SGA vice president, Kevin Rosenbaum plastered posters around campus that stated that he “Brought Free Music Downloading to Emory. Starting Fall 2005. Either Napster or iTunes.”
The idea of downloading free music without the potential of being slapped on the Recording Industry Association of America’s bad list is something many Emory students fantasize about.
And although free music downloading hasn’t arrived yet, Rosenbaum wasn’t just blowing smoke.
Rosenbaum is a member of the Committee for Free Music Downloading, along with such notable administration members as Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life John Ford and Chief Information Officer and Vice Provost for Information Technology Don Harris.
“The committee agrees that Emory University has to have free music downloading, but we have not decided which firm we want to go with yet,” Rosenbaum said.
According to Rosenbaum and Ford, the two main music programs they are leaning toward are the highly successful iTunes and the revamped, legal version of Napster.
But which program should Emory choose? And for that matter, are either of these services any good?
The first thing to keep in mind is that nothing in life is free, and that both programs have their catches.
Napster On-Campus offers students “tethered downloading,” a service that allows a student to keep the songs he downloads until his subscription runs out. After this, he is unable to access those songs.
If a student wants to burn a song to a CD or an MP3 player, he will have to play the flat fee that Napster’s online music store offers.
iTunes’ campus program is significantly different from Napster’s. Currently, iTunes only offers the iTunes Volume Discount Program, which would allow for the University to purchase large amounts of music at a discounted price.
Read the complete story @ The Emery Wheel
Related
- How Napster and DRM arrived at University of Washington
- Free, Legal and Ignored
- University Bans Direct Connect After RIAA Pressure
- Ohio University bans P2P
- Bowling Green University Enforces New Three-Strikes Anti-P2P Plan
