Even before he was elected, board member Joe Leinbach wanted to bring legal file-sharing to… Even before he was elected, board member Joe Leinbach wanted to bring legal file-sharing to campus.

He said that after a handful of students from Pitt were sued last year, he realized how important it is for a campus to have legal file-sharing programs.

“I don’t want to see students get sued. We need something at Pitt that will keep them safe,” Leinbach said. “I think this is something that’s beneficial for campus.”

After researching several companies, Leinbach has landed with three main servers to choose from: Ruckus, Cdigix and Napster.

According to Leinbach, there are pros and cons for each service.

Ruckus is the newest program and has a personalized opening page for every campus. The page also allows for video ads created by students. Ruckus and Cdigix have options to pay extra for the opportunity to download movies, also.

Cdigix and Napster are the largest and most established. Napster’s partnership with Dell, however, makes it easier to use on campus computers. Student Government Board will have Napster tables set up sometime in the next two weeks where students can test the product, make comments and ask questions.

“We’re addressing a concern of the students which is how safe it is to download music,” SGB President Joe Pasqualichio said. “These systems all provide that, but it’s just a matter of picking the right one for our school.”

File-sharing – both legal and not – is still popular among students.

“When I downloaded music, I’m sure it was illegal,” freshman Amber Buscuy said. “For an unlimited amount of music, it’s worth it.”

Buscuy said that she does not listen to common music, but she still thinks it’s a great idea for Pitt to have a legal file-sharing service.

“I won’t get my use out of it,” she said, “but I’m sure others will.”

Leinbach said that SGB feels strongly that the money for a file-sharing program should not come out of the Student Activities Fee.

The board has instead proposed to raise the Technology Fee by a few dollars per month in order to account for the cost. This would guarantee that all students with a Pitt username could have their own access code through the portal.

Each license lasts through the summer and can be accessed by three different computers.

All three companies also offer special deals for alumni to continue use after graduation.

While the board is looking into the possibility of students choosing whether or not to pay for an access code, Leinbach said that they would prefer raising the Technology Fee for everyone.

“We’re already paying 16 grand, what’s another 25 bucks?” freshman Kevin Hengelbrock said. “That’s the way I look at it.”

The only drawbacks Leinbach sees with the programs are the lack of peer-to-peer sharing, and incompatibility with Apple products.

Each program has a “to-go” program that costs a few dollars extra per month. The to-go program allows the user to put songs on an mp3 player without paying per song.

“I don’t mind that I can’t put it on my iPod because I’m sure in like two months there will be some kind of program to pirate it off,” Hengelbrock said.

Pasqualichio said that with these huge servers being updated monthly, the options for music would probably be just as great or greater than if there was a peer-to-peer sharing program.

Because the board would like to start file-sharing by next fall, it plans to meet with the necessary administrators as soon as possible to find the best deal.