| UC taps Linux-friendly music/video download service to reduce copyright violations |
Jul. 18, 2005
 Hoping to stem the tide of students freely sharing copyrighted content over campus networks, the University of California (UC) system has selected a music and video service that supports Windows, Mac OS, and Linux to provide music and video downloads for its approximately 200,000 student population, according to TheKompany.com, which introduced the service last December.
(Click for larger screenshot)
Unlike iTunes (which only supports Mac OS X and Windows) and Napster (which is Windows-only), Mindawn works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Another touted benefit is that its client software allows listening to a full preview of the entire song, rather than the brief excerpts offered by iTunes and Napster.
In addition, instead of providing downloads that are degraded by what is known as "lossy compression," downloads from Mindawn are offered in both Ogg Vorbis and FLAC formats.
"Ogg Vorbis . . . is a totally free and open sound format, and offers superior sound quality compared to MP3 and other compression techniques," explains TheCompany.com. "Meanwhile, FLAC is full CD quality and while 50 percent smaller, [and] can easily be converted to AIFF or WAV files for use in standard CD players, or converted to virtually any other lossy format for use on any portable media player. Mindawn is the only online music service to offer FLAC and Ogg Vorbis as its standard music file formats, and is the only service to offer music in both "lossy" and "lossless" forms in addition to video."
David Walker, Director of Advanced Technology for the University of California, who oversaw the selection of vendors for UC, said: "Mindawn will be a valuable partner for campuses instituting online entertainment programs because of its wide range of content by independent artists and its offer to allow UC students to market their own music. This is an important endeavor that we are embarking on, and we are pleased to be working with an established leader on the project."
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