Ohio University's sponsored music downloading service - Cdigix - has rounded out its first year in use, aiding in the trend towards increased legal downloading. Online generators of illegal downloading have been facing some fierce competition of late on college campuses as an increasing number of universities are provide their students with access to legal file sharing programs. With the threat of lawsuits and that relatively inexpensive alternative, the university has laudibly provided students and faculty with an alternative to illegal downloading.
Although few students probably lost sleep over their dishonest downloading, the threat of fines that has directly affected OU students has scared some of their peers straight. Recognizing this, the university should be commended for providing an alternative media-downloading source that contains over 1 million songs while still offering unlimited downloading at the relatively low price of a monthly $2.99 for students and $5.99 for faculty. Most other legal services online have thus far provided an unappealing alternative for many, with the cost of each song seeming exuberant for those who download a considerable amount of songs each month.
The idea of the university providing an alternative music source is appealing, however the Cdigix service has caused some debate. The need to be online to listen to songs, the automatic monthly charge of the service and the selection have been causes for concern for some unimpressed students who have joined. Although the technology could be tweaked to encourage more membership in the program, the fact that this service is being offered will be a much-needed help for students who oppose, or fear the repercussions of, illegal downloading.
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Music service good but not perfect
