Students and faculty who download music through Cdigix's free service won't have that option after May 1 and could lose all songs acquired through the program.
Cdigix, which made its music download product Ctrax available free of charge this year and released an upgrade to Ctrax in late October, cannot afford to continue offering the service because it is no longer profitable, said Brett Goldberg, executive vice president of Cdigix.
As of May 1
we will no longer be providing the Ctrax service at Ohio University Goldberg said. We made the determination that the music businessG? is not the place that we want to be at this point and for the foreseeable future.
Ctrax licenses will expire May 31, leaving songs downloaded through the service unplayable unless the university offers a transition option Goldberg said.
The university is looking at other options for a legal download service, said Kent Smith, vice president for student affairs.
Increasing competition from peer-to-peer services like Bittorrent and LimeWire, along with larger legal services, such as iTunes have made the download market very competitive, Goldberg said.
A P2P (peer-to-peer) system
simply put
is an unencumbered way of getting the media one would want without paying for it
Goldberg said. That puts a commercially viable service like Ctrax at a disadvantage.
The RIAA announced last week that OU received more music copyright infringement notices than any other university in the nation this academic year. More than 1,200 students have been caught sharing music through the university network since September.
Ctrax is incompatible with Apple computers and iPod MP3 players, which resulted in many complaints from students, said Allen Brindle, former Cdigix campus marketing manager.
I think that was a big weakness for the service
he said.Cdigix uses Windows Media Player (WMA) format, which is protected by digital rights management that prevents users from copying, editing or distributing the files. To play the music on a portable device or burn the files to CDs, students must pay 89 cents.
I think the service as a whole was a great way for students to get most of their music legally to avoid lawsuits
Brindle said. In the fall, former CIO Bill Sams estimated 2,500 students were using the Ctrax program.
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