Purdue to discontinue music downloading service

The current service will end when Purdue's contract with the music downloading provider Cdigix expires on Wednesday (May 31).

Steve Tally, media relations manager for Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), said that the music downloading market has changed from just a few years ago.

"The market is maturing, and now anyone can get this type of service themselves from a variety of companies, including Napster, MusicMatch, Virgin, Rhapsody from RealNetworks, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, MTV's new service called Urge and Apple's iTunes. You can even download songs from Wal-Mart," Tally said. "We thought we should let the students choose the service that works best for them.

"When we began offering this service, there weren't many safe and legal ways to download songs from the Internet, and this provided a way to do that. Now there are many choices and ways to get music legally."

Because of these market choices, the number of students who took advantage of the university service was limited.

"Fewer than 10 percent of our students ever tried it, and, in talking about the service with our Student Advisory Council, we decided it would be best for students to choose the type of music download services they prefer," Tally said.

Purdue was among the first universities in the nation to offer music downloading to students when it launched the service in 2004.

Although the university will no longer offer a music downloading service, students, faculty and staff members who download music should use one of the legal services, Tally said.

"Illegal file sharing is simply not a smart idea," he said. "It violates federal laws and university policy, and anyone who illegally downloads copyrighted material risks facing penalties from the university or being sued for damages by the owners of the copyright. Also, these illegal file sharing programs are often a way to introduce viruses or other malicious software into your computer."

Because of the risks associated with illegal file sharing, Purdue will continue to educate students, faculty and staff about legal alternatives, Tally said.

"We have a variety of promotions that we use to inform students about the risks of illegal file sharing," he said.

Tally said efforts to educate Purdue students about the risks of illegal file sharing have included television commercials on the campus cable network, posters placed in the residence halls, articles in campus publications and local media, special events sponsored by computer vendors, and orientation sessions for new students.

Source: Steve Tally, (765) 494-9809, tally@exchange.purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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