Downloading Music to All Students,

Downloading Music

To All Students, a Memo Concerning Music Downloading

Although it is not fully the responsibility of the college to infringe on the activities of students, one particular activity has been causing a lot of controversy and hassle for the campus administration -- illegally downloading music. Along with blatantly breaking the law, illegally downloading music off the internet causes the college a lot of headache. In fact, the practice can also take away from the educational resources of the college; according to some reports, "Downloading music and using file-sharing programs can strain a college's bandwidth, hampering its use for research or other educational purposes," (Burk 2007). Despite its common occurrence, this practice is illegal. If discovered by law enforcement or record companies, students may be in danger of facing criminal or civil charges, (Kosturakis 2007). In fact, several cases where the RIAA found students to be illegally downloading material, have led to civil suits filed against students. Illegally sharing and downloading programs and music through the university's resources is much different than exploitation of public services, such as taping a song from the radio. When students take university resources for granted and break the law, it looks bad on the university itself.

However, there are certain actions the university can take on which would help deter students from committing such crimes in the future. Opening up potential contracts with legal music downloading programs can help curb the tie of illegal downloads, while still keeping prices for legal music at a minimum for already struggling college students, (Burk 2007). Another recommendation which would prove effective is limitations on certain types of downloading programs used by students on campus internet connections. If a student is then found to use certain programs, they may be subject to removal from the campus connection for the duration of the semester. Such actions have been proven useful in the past by other Universities (College Publisher 2008). And so, this administration should, and will, take similar measures to curb illegal downloading of music by the student body.