Despite the fact that Cdigix, a legal file sharing program approved and sponsored by the University, has been available to students for over three months, few students have registered.
Out of the approximately 6,500 students on the Medford/Somerville campus eligible to use the service, only 1,000 have registered, according to Dean of Students Bruce Reitman.
In an attempt to put an end to illegal file-sharing on campus, the Tufts administration subscribed to the service last fall, on Nov. 3, for an undisclosed amount.
The University followed suit with several other campuses across the country. Both Yale and Duke Universities have offered Cdigix to their students as well.
A subscription allows students to install the Cdigix program onto their desktop or laptop computers. Students are then permitted to download music for the duration of the school year only, with no additional charges.
Cdigix serves as an alternative to widely criticized programs such as Kazaa, Acquisition and Limewire.
Cdigix, however, has made little impact on campus to date, partially due to limited exposure and knowledge.
The time of release - just before Thanksgiving break - was untimely, as many students were in the midst of final exams.
"There needs to be more word out [about Cdigix]," Reitman said. He said the issue of the lack of publicity about Cdigix will be addressed.
Tufts' unresponsiveness is unusual compared to most other schools who offer the program. At other universities with Cdigix subscriptions, the average rate of use among the various student bodies is about 60 percent, Reitman said.
Reitman said Tufts Online supervisor Judi Rennie plans to work on a promotion campaign including table tents, postering and advertisements in campus publications and on Tuftslife.com.
So far, the reactions of students who do use the service have been varied.
Sophomore Yael Glosser has encountered several difficulties during her limited use of the program.
"I downloaded the program and it wouldn't work without Internet Explorer. Even with that program, some of the songs that I searched for weren't in the database," Glosser said.
Glosser said that, as a Cdigix user, she is in the minority among Tufts students. "I know nobody [else] who uses [the program]," Glosser said.
Another obstacle is that Apple computer owners are incompatible with the Cdigix program.
"It's frustrating because if we're going to be penalized for using other downloading programs, why can't they provide something for Mac users?" said sophomore Heather Finn, who cannot use Cdigix on her iBook laptop.
Many students also complained that the songs from Cdigix were unable to be uploaded onto mp3 players or burned onto compact discs unless they were purchased.
Nevertheless, Cdigix has some fans on campus. .
Freshman Hannah Ehrlich praised the system. "I used it every few days last semester," she said. "It's fast and it's easy to use. I'd recommend it."
Since the University pays Cdigix for its services, Ehrlich says she is more at ease when downloading music. "I don't feel guilty because I won't get in trouble," Ehrlich said.
In the 2003-2004 academic year, 111 students were caught downloading material illegally, seven of whom were repeat offenders, Rennie said. She noted that the numbers of students caught thus far in the academic year were not any lower.
In addition to the legality, Rennie said there are other advantages to the service. "The songs are good quality, it's better for the bandwidth, and it's more secure so that students don't become servers [users that have open share drives]," she said.
As a result of these advantages, Rennie said that she thinks Tufts students will begin to use the program at the same rate as students at other universities.
"If enough kids try it, it'll catch on," she said.
