It is really starting to heat up in the legal file sharing space on University campuses … just read this article about the North Carolina University system pilot testing a new service that may allow students with access to several online music and movie stores. They say a “fee is likely,” but I doubt that will make students uptight given they are being told ahead of time. Especially if you consider that students will be able to “opt in” at $2-$5 a month … If you remember, we had a discussion like this earlier this semester and you all overwhelmingly wanted to know what the real (read hidden) costs of the Napster project are. This seems like a much better approach.
Now, when you are researching your solution, you know of a place that is really attacking this issue — the North Carolin University state system. I wonder if that could ever happen here in the Commonwealth of PA? I think I know the answer, but would be interested in hearing from you all.
Update 10.25.2004
On the other end of the spectrum … I just read an article at Wired.com that speaks to the importance of all this … the article, “Song-Swap Networks Still Humming” claims that, ” Peer-to-peer traffic has not declined despite the music industry’s aggressive pursuit of illegal file sharers…” Wow, couldn’t figure that one out on our own, could we? They go on to link to some great resources you should take a look at and discuss how they measure activity and challenge earlier research that said P2P activity is on the decline. All in all, a good read … take a look and let us all know what you think!
It’s good that univerisities are trying to play the middle man by influncing file sharers and some of the entertainment industry to reach a compromise. I personally believe that a compromise between consumers who agree with P2P and the entertainment industry would be the best option to solving this contraversial issue. This issue itself to me is not really important and there are alot of other issues people in this country should be focused on this year.
Regarding the second article put up about p2p dying or hiding, obviously people are finding ways around showing the fact that they are downloading. Rescom showed us our freshman year how to block it so we can download as much and Penn State wouldnt know. I think what they are doing in North Carolina is cool but im not sure how they are going to stick it out, I mean napster isnt in full swing here at all. So many people still illegally download even though theres benefits and something helping, and now given prices, I dont know if students would go for it? Id be interested to see the final results.
I am starting to get more used to the idea of having to pay for downloading music. However after reading the article regarding the UNC school system trying to implement new programs I am confused about something. Does this system that they are trying to put in place for a fee actually allow you to put the media on CD’s and your hard drive, or is it like Napster here at PSU. I think I would rather pay a small monthly fee if I could actually have it on my computer as opposed to PSU’s Napster where you only have it temporarily and you can’t put it on CD.
I think that is a pretty good article. Just like someone commented on, I am starting to get used to paying for downloaded music…atleast here at PSU. P2P is always going to be there I believe. Some people just don’t care how dangerous it can be. I do it myself, but not a lot and I know there are some people who do it constantly out there.
I think NCU is making a great move that will allow them to not only curb the acts of illegal file sharing but also engage their students in a service that is more reliable, efficient, inexpensive (costs, dangers, etc.) and one of the first to propose movies. It’s a smart business move that will attract a lot of attention. And I’m sure there will be followers as well.
It’s good that a better way of testing has been discovered to indicate the number of p2p downloads. Now apples can be compared to apples. I’m not excatly sure how they were measuring the downloads before but now they suspect that illegal downloading has not declined at all.
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