2008 Woodie Awards
Stealing is Not a Crime
Tyler Adams
Issue date: 2/9/05 Section: Opinion
Sigh. As you probably already know, Goucher and its SGA have decided to block all peer-to-peer filesharing programs. I understand why - they, for the most part, are used to illegally download music, movies, and other media. That detracts from the moral fiber of the school. Understood. I'm not trying to argue the decision. But damned if I won't complain about it.
If this were 1979, we'd make tapes off the radio; now, we download music (and other stuff). All the arguments for why filesharing shouldn't be prosecuted have been expressed - the record industry owes us, it's a good way of subverting "the man", etc. While those assertions may or may not be true, it's pointless to argue the law.
Let's take a look at the alternative Goucher has offered us, which is more than can be said for some other campuses. The Cdigix Online Music Service does a lot of good things, but fails in many respects. Goucher students do not have to pay for the monthly subscription and can download tracks for free. Unfortunately, those tracks are "tethered" - in other words, they're not going anywhere off your hard drive unless you purchase them. The going rate? 89 cents a track, $9.99 an album. If I'm on a Nelly binge and need his party-rap magnum opus 'Nellyville' in my collection, it would make more sense to save some money (plus the trouble of downloading and burning a CD) and order from Amazon.com; it's currently about $5 with shipping. Besides, the actual CD is of a higher quality. The Cdigix tracks are encoded at 128 kb/s. Most CD tracks go at 192.
For computer listening, Cdigix is a pretty great service. That said, I sense Cdigix won't be enough to satisfy much of Goucher - it seems like every third person has iPod headphones complementing his or her outfit. As personal mp3 players become more affordable, we'll see even more. Cdigix songs come in a Windows-exclusive format, the .wma file type. That means you'll have to burn a CD, then rip that CD to eventually get it onto an mp3 player. Most portable music players don't support wma's. This is a major disadvantage to the legions of iPod-sporting Gophers.
If this were 1979, we'd make tapes off the radio; now, we download music (and other stuff). All the arguments for why filesharing shouldn't be prosecuted have been expressed - the record industry owes us, it's a good way of subverting "the man", etc. While those assertions may or may not be true, it's pointless to argue the law.
Let's take a look at the alternative Goucher has offered us, which is more than can be said for some other campuses. The Cdigix Online Music Service does a lot of good things, but fails in many respects. Goucher students do not have to pay for the monthly subscription and can download tracks for free. Unfortunately, those tracks are "tethered" - in other words, they're not going anywhere off your hard drive unless you purchase them. The going rate? 89 cents a track, $9.99 an album. If I'm on a Nelly binge and need his party-rap magnum opus 'Nellyville' in my collection, it would make more sense to save some money (plus the trouble of downloading and burning a CD) and order from Amazon.com; it's currently about $5 with shipping. Besides, the actual CD is of a higher quality. The Cdigix tracks are encoded at 128 kb/s. Most CD tracks go at 192.
For computer listening, Cdigix is a pretty great service. That said, I sense Cdigix won't be enough to satisfy much of Goucher - it seems like every third person has iPod headphones complementing his or her outfit. As personal mp3 players become more affordable, we'll see even more. Cdigix songs come in a Windows-exclusive format, the .wma file type. That means you'll have to burn a CD, then rip that CD to eventually get it onto an mp3 player. Most portable music players don't support wma's. This is a major disadvantage to the legions of iPod-sporting Gophers.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
strangeorangetongue
strangeorangetongue
posted 2/10/05 @ 7:32 PM EST
Wow, I'm sure the Alumni must be proud of this student's editorial! A real class act - "Stealing is Not a Crime". A contributing reporter without anything productive to say about Goucher taking positive steps for its own students. (Continued…)
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