Music downloading services for college campuses are nice. Maybe, in some small way, they'd help curb some illegal downloading. But when it comes down to it, the services are little more than luxuries.
Music services are fine, but they need to be instituted the right way.
When the University of Michigan signs up for music and video downloading services, there needs to be accountability to Michigan's tax payers.
By signing up with Cdigix, U-M decided to give more to students than music downloads for $2.99 per month or 89 cents per song - it took a first step down a slippery slope for public universities in Michigan.
Under the contract with Cdigix, U-M can't reveal how much it spent setting up the service. We at The State News find this especially troubling.
U-M officials noted that they only bought the service to allow professors to distribute videos over the Internet to their students. Any extra music services were just an added bonus.
It's not that we really care how much U-M spent to get music and video downloads for students, but when public tax dollars get spent behind the backs of Michigan citizens, without any accountability, there's reason to worry.
For Cdigix, the move is a good business plan. They can go to the next university and charge them what they see fit, without having to deal with a well-publicized standard rate.
Whoop-de-do for Cdigix. It still only benefits the company at the expense of Michigan as a whole.
U-M had a chance to demand that the finances remain open to the public. Instead, it elected to make it easier for companies to demand non-disclosure financial agreements with public universities throughout the state.
This past summer, as universities across the nation adopted similar services for their students, we opined that such services are superfluous and the venture to secure them shouldn't be embarked upon unless funding comfortably allows it.
Universities shouldn't be obligated to sign on with music providers. If and when they do, they need to take the appropriate steps and answer the resulting questions: Do we have the infrastructure to run it successfully? Will students pay a mandatory tax or subscribe? Will it reach all computer formats, and so on? Most importantly, they have to ask themselves: Are we using public tax money the very best way we could, and are we being upfront about it?
A general technology charge would not be a good idea, because students should have the discretion to download or not. It seems that U-M has adopted this, and we hope that if MSU goes the same down the road, it will follow suit.
U-M and MSU know that allocating public funding needs to meet the demands of students, alumni, faculty and a host of others investing in higher education. In doing so, full disclosure of allocations is necessary. U-M has done the opposite with its Cdigix deal.
Infrastructure that allows students of public universities to enjoy the spoils of the Internet is a fine amenity, but its implementation needs to be kept in line with public universities' spending precedents. It's a risky venture otherwise.
