The University of Maryland at College Park is giving students 90 days to sample and decide if they want to keep a legal downloading service. Through an unusually short contract with Cdigix, a company that provides digital music and movies, up to 16,000 students will get a chance to evaluate the service until June. At that point, they’ll have a hand in determining whether Cdigix will return to the campus in the fall.
Like other colleges, many of which will soon decide whether to keep their own downloading services, Maryland may have difficulty affording a longer-term deal with Cdigix. The trial program will be paid for by an unidentified donor.
