Another University Bails Out On Forced Music Subscription Services
from the getting-the-hint? dept
We never quite understood the fascination certain universities had with forcing their students to use a music subscription service. The universities, in their shortsighted way, seemed to think that this was somehow a "solution" to the file sharing issue. However, it was anything but that. Since the subscriptions were all quite limited, they did much more to make students wonder why their administration was wasting their tuition dollars on this stuff, when they could just sign up for whatever they wanted instead. So, it wasn't much of a surprise to find that students weren't using the systems at all. A new report notes a similar result at American University where most students didn't even try the system, despite it being free, and many didn't want it to be offered at all. In other words, the students aren't stupid -- and they know they're getting a raw deal with these university "sponsored" offerings. One worthwhile sidenote on this announcement, is that the school is also giving up on Audible Magic's file identification system that the RIAA insisted was the magic bullet that could perfectly stop all unauthorized file sharing, but which many people suspected was more vaporware than serious technology.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
