In an effort to curb media piracy, UCLA plans enter a one-year
agreement with three digital media vendors who will provide legal
downloading services beginning in spring 2006.
Apple iTunes, CDigix and Mindawn were selected to provide
alternatives as part of a larger educational campaign to discourage
illegal downloading by the B-Legal committee, a collaborative
effort between Communications Technology Services, Housing, Office
of Information Technology and Student Affairs to combat the
problem.
“We want to provide students with visible alternatives (to
illegal downloading). A lot of students aren’t aware of the
fact that they could be sued or just believe it won’t happen
to them,” said Betty Yee, On Campus Housing Council student
representative to the committee.
The services will be tested in the residence halls during winter
quarter and made available to all students, faculty and staff in
the spring.
After surveys of residents indicated student interest, the
University of California issued a request for proposals in 2005 to
online digital media providers to secure competitive choices for
campuses that choose to offer such services. The UC selected
several services for each campus to choose from.
The three vendors selected by UCLA provided the most variety and
convenience for users, said Jonathan Curtiss, manager of
technological development for student and campus affairs.
Regardless of computer platform or musical tastes, every student
should be able to utilize at least one of the services, he
said.
Curtiss said purchasing music through the school provides
advantages over normal retail purchase.
Apple iTunes offers a five percent rebate to the university on
purchases made through the iTunes “affiliates” program.
This money will be collected and can be used by the Undergraduate
Student Association Council, Graduate Student Association and
OCHC.
Mindawn also will waive the uploading fee for UCLA artists,
allowing them to distribute or sell their music over the site.
No university money will be used to fund the services, so
student fees will not be affected. Instead, use of the services
will be voluntary and billed directly to the user, and vendors will
be responsible for their own advertising.
“It’s a win-win situation. It’s a great
opportunity for students and no cost for the UC. If you want to be
involved in this you can, but if you don’t want to, you
don’t have to,” said Pavan Tripathi, the USAC-appointed
student representative on the B-Legal committee.
First-year student Danielle Ryan said she will likely utilize
the iTunes service.
“I already use iTunes to download music sometimes,”
Ryan said. “If the school was benefitting, I’d probably
be even more likely to use iTunes instead of illegally
downloading.”
Other universities have adopted similar programs with varied
success, Curtiss said.
“Whether the programs have caught on at a school or not
depends on the students and the vendors,” Curtiss said.
“The students have to be interested, and the vendors have to
get them interested through advertising.”
The success of the program will be re-evaluated next year after
the one-year contract expires. The committee will then decide
whether to continue the program, possibly with different
vendors.
Yee said she believes the program will be successful in
combating illegal downloading.
“Hopefully this will make a difference in discouraging
students from doing something illegal because the risk isn’t
worth it,” Yee said.