Universities in US encourage students to buy `legal' music

Twenty US universities are offering Roxio Inc's Napster and other legal online file-sharing services in a bid to curb music piracy, the Recording Industry Association of America said.

The RIAA, which represents the major record labels, last year began targeting piracy on college campuses through lawsuits against 158 students at 35 campuses and a separate educational program developed with college officials.

The entertainment industry says illegal downloads of music, movies and games cost billions of dollars in annual sales. A federal appeals court last week upheld a ruling that peer-to-peer networks, free file-sharing services commonly used today, aren't liable for copyright infringement committed by users.

"A year ago, no school had formed a partnership with a legitimate digital music provider," said Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, during a conference call. The legal downloading services "introduce students to the concept that music has value." Penn State University, Cornell University and the University of Southern California are among the schools that will offer music services this academic year. Penn State started a pilot program with Napster last year that reduced piracy and freed up bandwidth, said Graham Spanier, president of the university.

"It's an ethical, it's a moral issue," Spanier, who is also co-chair of the Joint Committee of Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, said on the conference call. "We are charged with helping millions of students who are transitioning from adolescents to adults."

Students download songs for free and pay US$0.99 to transfer the songs to a compact disc. Downloads to portable music players aren't allowed.

Spanier the subscription costs are paid through an information technology budget.