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Minnesota university offers music downloading service By EMILY KAISER MINNESOTA DAILY (U. MINNESOTA) (U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS — As the Recording Industry Association of America fights back at illegal music file-sharers, the University of Minnesota has begun offering students a discounted online music service as a legal alternative. The University is offering students a free two-week trial of the service to encourage legal ways to download music online, but some students said they are skeptical about changing their downloading habits. The service, RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, will allow University students on and off campus to stream music through a downloaded program for $2 a month and download individual songs for 79 cents a song. Normally, a subscription would cost $9 a month. The program offers more than 730.000 songs and more than 58.000 albums, with more being added each day, said Erika Shaffer, a spokeswoman for RealNetworks. But having the service available does not ensure that students will download music legally, said Shih Pau Yen, a University spokesman. “This is not a technology issue, it’s a habit change,” Yen said. “Technology has provided the infrastructure and power to download music illegally, but students need to have the opportunity to change those habits.” Zachary Carlson, a fifth-year English and French student, downloads music on free file-sharing programs which the RLAA has used to target file-sharers who illegally copy and share copyrighted music. Carlson said his concerns with the paid programs are the variety of music found on the program and the price per song. “The price for each song is not that much cheaper than buying the whole CD,” he said. “When you buy the CD, you get the cover art, which 1 think is an essential part of the music experience.” The University joins more than a dozen schools across the nation to give students a discounted music download program. RealNetworks has started its discounted college subscriptions at the University of Minnesota, as well as the University of California Berkeley. “Universities are a new area that we are focusing on,” Shaffer said. College students are a good target for the program, because of their interest in a wide variety of music and their access to computers with high-speed Internet connections, Shaffer said. The first school to offer a similar program, Pennsylvania State University, saw 85 percent participation in its program that began in the spring. The service averaged 100,000 streams or downloads a day, said Sam Haldeman, assistant to the associate vice provost. For Penn State, the start of the program was primarily a legal issue. “As a higher institution of education, we thought it was our responsibility to educate students about the ramifications of those laws and the alternatives,” Haldeman said. However, the University did not start the service because of concerns about the RIAA suing the school. “Our own legal analysis is that the University itself is not an available target for the recording industry, because we are not involved in any way with the copyright violations, and we don’t encourage students to do that,” said Mark Rotenberg, general counsel at the University. Yen said the University will not make any money from the deal, but is offering it as part of a continuing effort by the University to give students low-cost technology. The program is a one-year pilot program, and the University and RealNetworks will determine its success based on how many students sign up. “We hope the students in the residence halls really take advantage of this,” Yen said. “If we get 30 to 40 percent of on-campus students to sign up, it will be very successful to us.” John Barber, a nutrition science senior at the University, said he already downloads music through iTunes, a top competitor in the online music industry. “I don’t think I download enough for this program to be worth it,” he said. But Barber said the program might become popular, particularly in the residence halls. “I think students will try anything for cheap,” he said. “After the lawsuits, people realize that the risk isn’t worth it and will pay a couple bucks.” The online music service Rhapsody will be offered free for two weeks. After the two-week trial, students can subscribe to the service for the following discounted rates: Individual songs, 79 cents each One-month subscription, $2.99 Three-month subscription, $5.99 Twelve-month subscription, $23.99 To subscribe to the service or for more information, visit the University TechMart Web site at www.techmart.umn.edu Where you can request your own blood and health tests without a doctor’s order. ■+• We are Columbia’s only direct lab test and health testing company supervised by a board-certified physician on site. How does it work? Visit our location and order from our extensive menu of blood test and health tests. Pay by credit card, check or cash. No health Insurance is accepted. Your blood is drawn on site. In two business days your results are sent confidentially in the mail after being reviewed by a licensed, board-certified physician. Other health tests are done on site. I —All lab and health tests from our center should be discussed with ypur physician—_ l-: ♦ December Graduates ^^^F 9 * It is time to order!! Cap & Gown & Graduation Announcements GRAD FAIR Sept. 14th - 16th 12:00 - 6:00 p.m. t Russell House Bookstore I Balfour • 1609 Blossom St» • 1-866-225-3687 The Gamecock is looking 1 for editorial cartoonists. If interested, please e-mail gamecockopinions@ gwm.sc.edu L A . HURRICANE FRANCES I h-■ ■ I .1 < : ■ ■ I I I 1 BB H B m , " ■ I I 1" BHBB B^ i TRACY GLANTZ/THE STATE Matthew Etter searches through the rubble of his wife's cousin's mobile home along Ithica Drive in Sumter. The home was removed from its foundationby a tornado. ■ FRANCES ■ Continued from page 1 Aiken. The vehicle then struck some trees, according to the Highway Patrol. The winds and rain caused no deaths and at least six injuries, none of them major, officials said. The worst weather has moved steadily north and west through a state dealing with its fourth tropical system in the past five weeks. Up to 5 inches of rain fell in several bands east of Columbia by early Tuesday evening. No widespread flooding had been reported, but an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain was expected across most of the state, the National Weather Service said. Isolated places could see up to a foot of rain before the storms end, weather service meteorologist Joe Pelissier said. “With tropical systems like this, there’s no telling how much rain can fall,” he said. The event could cause the worst widespread flooding in the Upstate since Tropical Storm Jerry dumped more than a foot of rain in some areas in August 1995, forecasters said. The center of what remained of Frances was slowly moving through western. Georgia. Until it moves north of the area late Wednesday, the storm, which was once the size of Texas, will continue to spin heavy rains and the possibility of tornadoes, the weather service warned. Hardest hit Tuesday was central South Carolina, where weak twisters sporadically knocked around a few homes and trees before disappearing back into the clouds. National Weather Service teams are trying to confirm all 33 of the tornadoes reported through 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, but it could be several days before they get a final count, officials said. The total could top the 22 tornadoes that struck the state in August 1994 when the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl passed through. The heaviest damage may have been in a small area in southern Sumter County. About 30 homes were damaged, including a brick home turned off its foundation, and three people injured around 8:30 a.m. by an apparent tornado, Public Safety director Vic Jones said. Several other homes and an office building also were damaged in Sumter County, causing an estimated $1.7 million in damage, Jones said. Like most or 1 uesday s storms, the damage was minimal. George Bartlette, who lives in the area, said he saw a group of trees flattened, then no damage, then a couple of mobile homes blown around. “It was just hitting in spots, you know,” Bartlette said. Three people also were hurt around 5 a-.m. when high winds damaged two mobile homes near Gadsden in southeastern Richland County near Columbia, said George Rice, spokesman for Richland County EMS. High winds damaged 22 homes at Fort Jackson in Columbia, but most of the damage was confined to roofs. Just six home were left uninhabitable, said James Hinnant, spokesman for the Army training base. Other possible tornado damage was reported in Kershaw, Darlington, Lee and Marlboro counties. The storms were so scattered -1 that none of the state’s major utilities reported any widespread outages. Frances is the fifth storm South Carolinians have had to deal with this season. Hurricane Alex made a feint at the coast before hitting North Carolina’s Outer Banks early last month. Then Tropical Storm Bonnie, which made landfall in the Florida Panhandle, soaked the state. Hurricane Charley, after devastating southwest Florida, made a second landfall in Charleston County last month. Tropical Storm Gaston came ashore a few miles from where Charley made landfall, causing flooding and knocking out power to tens of thousands. And emergency officials are watching Hurricane Ivan in the far eastern Caribbean that is forecast to be near Cuba by the weekend. “It’s been an eventful season so far,” state Emergency Management Division spokesman John Legare said. The stormy summer season is expected to affect the bottom line for tourism along South Carolina’s Grand Strand. Businesses are still expecting an increase from last season, but as much as they hoped. “This was really looking to be a great year. Things were really setting up to be good for us,” said Stephen Greene, the vice president for communications for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not just a single hit, it’s been multiple blows. How much that lags down the entire summer season remains to be seen.” Staff writer LaDonna Beeker contributed to this story. r-—:-- i —-a——n