Los Angeles - Legal download services are gaining traction among U.S. universities, as 15% already offer such a piracy-alternative while another 17% either plan to offer or are considering adding one, Ars Technica reported, citing a new survey from Educase, which represents campus IT professionals.

Among larger universities -- doctoral institutions, for the purposes of the survey -- the adoption rate for campus download services is even higher, at 39.4%.

For the past several years, the recording industry has been targeting college students with "pre-litigation settlement letters" and copyright infringement lawsuits over their file-sharing on campus networks.

Educase found that, at schools that offer residence halls, 98% offer broadband connections, with 85% of these clocking in faster than 10Mbps, and 44% reaching speeds of 100Mbps or faster.

The survey comes some time after download service provider Cdigix withdrew from the campus market, and just over a month after Napster ended its Napster on Campus program; services still operating in the space include Ruckus.

The Educase survey also did not provide data on how many students are actually using these legal campus download services.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/491n6 (Ars Technica)

http://snipurl.com/4920t (EDUCASE)