Penn State Considering Forced Digital Music Licensing For Students

from the missing-the-point...-again dept

Over at Penn State University, the University president is trying to drum up support for his idea that universities should run their own file downloading networks, with music licensed from all the major labels - and just tack on an extra fee to the students' tuition. He's hoping to have students cut back on using file sharing programs - but again, he's missing the point. There's a difference between downloading and sharing - and the ability for file sharing networks to offer up new acts, independent acts, live recordings, videos, and plenty of other things that will never be found on a legal "downloading" site, will keep them busy. Plus, file sharing lets people more easily recommend stuff to their friends (which, of course, is free promotion for the music industry, but they'll never understand that). Not that students wouldn't use such a system - especially if their tuition bills are paid by their parents - but it probably won't do much to cut back on file sharing.

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