Goucher College Student Online Music Program

Release date: December 21, 2004 |

Because of the work of a student committee and the Student Government Association (SGA), students will have access to a new online music service during a pilot for the Spring 2005 semester. This service will provide students with the ability to access more than 1,200,000 tracks of music. Students will be able to download and listen to the complete song for free. During the pilot, access to the online music service will be free to students because of funding provided by the SGA and the college. Students will be able to purchase and own songs for $0.89 per track or $9.99 per album. During the Spring semester, students will be asked to evaluate the online music service to determine if the program should be continued or modified for the Fall 2005 semester. In addition to music services, students will be able to subscribe (for a fee) to a video library or pay-for-view video content.

In addition, a resolution has been passed by the SGA to block all incoming and outgoing peer-to-peer program Internet traffic. Examples of these programs include, but are not limited to, BitTorrent, KaZaA, Morpheus, Limewire and Bearshare. The SGA took this action because of the high levels of spy ware, computer viruses, use of these programs to transmit and receive copyrighted material, and high bandwidth utilization associated with these programs. The college has reviewed and evaluated the SGA resolution and agrees with its recommendation. Therefore, effective December 21, 2004, peer-to-peer file sharing programs will be blocked.

Detailed information about the online music program and how to access the music service will be provided to students at the beginning of the Spring semester.