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Students Skip College Music Services
WSJdpatton writes "College students don't turn down much that's free. But when it comes to online music, even free hasn't been enough to persuade many students to use the digital download services colleges and universities are providing." I know that the Ctrax service offered by my current school — Temple University — and many others (it's "available to all college students with a '.edu' email address") has an ugly, awkward interface. Worse, the free (gratis) part is an expiring, "tethered" collection of music for those who use it; downloads to keep are fee-per-track.
May I suggest you don't major in law, considering that you seem unable to grasp the difference between copyright infringement and theft?
Too bad the article doesn't mention how common iTunes or other online music stores are, that sell their music so the buyer can own it and move it to any portable device. It has been said before, but pirated music in mp3 format without DRM is a completely superior product to the downloadable crap the industry has been trying to sell. That it's legal is not a good enough selling point, and it doesn't tip anyone over if you can't own it, move it, or share it.
What is immoral? They make a product, they set a price, they sell it. Nobody forces you to use their product. Why do they have a monopoly? There are alternatives. You don't like Windows? Run Linux. You don't like MS Word? Use WordPerfect or OpenOffice. Don't like Excel? How about Lotus 1-2-3? Outlook? There's Lotus Notes. Funny thing is, most of these products used to own a larger share of the market than Microsoft's, yet Microsoft won because they made their software easier-to-use and offered better support and volume licensing. So don't fault Microsoft for playing the game of capitalism and succeeding. You don't like it? Maybe you'd feel more at home in Cuba or North Korea, then...