AU announced Tuesday that it has acquired a trial subscription to Audible Magic, a program that will disable the illegal downloading of copyrighted materials on campus. The trial will run from next week through April, when AU will decide whether or not to permanently purchase the program.
The expensive program will be applied to residence halls and the Mary Graydon Center, but not to other spots on campus such as the Ward Building.
One must question why AU would even consider paying for a costly program that is so easy to get around. It would be a complete waste of money to purchase Audible Magic when students with wireless Internet access could just take their computers out to the Quad and download from there.
Furthermore, many in the AU community are already upset about the lack of communication from administration in the decisions to sign up the university for Ruckus and to cut the tennis and golf programs. Perhaps administrators should take the time to review President Benjamin Ladner's 15-Point Plan for a better AU, which expresses the desire for more student input in decisions.
We realize that AU is caught in a sticky situation when it comes to the recording industry and downloading, but it has to include the students in the decision-making process if it wants to maintain the respect of students.
Yes, AU can run a well-oiled machine where no one is happy, but students will not want to come here. Administration should look at all options and take student feelings into account before it spends our money.
