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In an effort to curb media piracy, UCLA plans enter a one-year agreement with three digital media vendors who will provide legal downloading services beginning in spring 2006.

Apple iTunes, CDigix and Mindawn were selected to provide alternatives as part of a larger educational campaign to discourage illegal downloading by the B-Legal committee, a collaborative effort between Communications Technology Services, Housing, Office of Information Technology and Student Affairs to combat the problem.

“We want to provide students with visible alternatives (to illegal downloading). A lot of students aren’t aware of the fact that they could be sued or just believe it won’t happen to them,” said Betty Yee, On Campus Housing Council student representative to the committee.

The services will be tested in the residence halls during winter quarter and made available to all students, faculty and staff in the spring.

After surveys of residents indicated student interest, the University of California issued a request for proposals in 2005 to online digital media providers to secure competitive choices for campuses that choose to offer such services. The UC selected several services for each campus to choose from.

The three vendors selected by UCLA provided the most variety and convenience for users, said Jonathan Curtiss, manager of technological development for student and campus affairs.

Regardless of computer platform or musical tastes, every student should be able to utilize at least one of the services, he said.

Curtiss said purchasing music through the school provides advantages over normal retail purchase.

Apple iTunes offers a five percent rebate to the university on purchases made through the iTunes “affiliates” program. This money will be collected and can be used by the Undergraduate Student Association Council, Graduate Student Association and OCHC.

Mindawn also will waive the uploading fee for UCLA artists, allowing them to distribute or sell their music over the site.

No university money will be used to fund the services, so student fees will not be affected. Instead, use of the services will be voluntary and billed directly to the user, and vendors will be responsible for their own advertising.

“It’s a win-win situation. It’s a great opportunity for students and no cost for the UC. If you want to be involved in this you can, but if you don’t want to, you don’t have to,” said Pavan Tripathi, the USAC-appointed student representative on the B-Legal committee.

First-year student Danielle Ryan said she will likely utilize the iTunes service.

“I already use iTunes to download music sometimes,” Ryan said. “If the school was benefitting, I’d probably be even more likely to use iTunes instead of illegally downloading.”

Other universities have adopted similar programs with varied success, Curtiss said.

“Whether the programs have caught on at a school or not depends on the students and the vendors,” Curtiss said. “The students have to be interested, and the vendors have to get them interested through advertising.”

The success of the program will be re-evaluated next year after the one-year contract expires. The committee will then decide whether to continue the program, possibly with different vendors.

Yee said she believes the program will be successful in combating illegal downloading.

“Hopefully this will make a difference in discouraging students from doing something illegal because the risk isn’t worth it,” Yee said.