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As UCLA launches its new “Get Legal” campaign – aimed at preventing media piracy online by providing legal alternatives – some students are questioning whether the program can work when illegal options are so prevalent and whether the program’s incentives are enough to draw them to the program.

Get Legal consists of a one-year agreement between UCLA and digital-media vendors iTunes, Cdigix and Mindawn to offer legal music downloads to UCLA students.

Jonathan Curtiss, manager of technological development for UCLA student and campus affairs, said illegal downloading of music and videos has become common among many students.

“Students are conditioned to get (media) illegally,” said Curtiss, who is also a member of the Get Legal team.

The biggest concern for the effectiveness of Get Legal remains that many students find it very easy to download illegally, he said.

And while many students may not prefer to pay for legal downloading, Curtiss said media piracy is becoming increasingly risky because media companies are more vigilantly attacking those who download illegally.

Faced with a legal obligation to comply with media copyright laws, UCLA has introduced the three-pronged campaign. Get Legal provides education about downloading, disciplinary disincentives and legal alternatives, Curtiss said.

The educational component of the campaign consists of letters from the dean of students to all students indicating the risks of illegal downloading, as well as poster campaigns in residence halls to spread the word, Curtiss said.

The Get Legal program will not change the disciplinary process facing students caught downloading illegally, Curtiss said.

UCLA’s disciplinary policy on illegal downloading is to cut first-time offenders off from Internet privileges until the offender signs an agreement not to violate the university Internet policy again. Second-time offenders face more serious consequences such as permanent loss of university Internet access.

Curtiss said this policy is intended to be fair to students while still providing students with an incentive not to violate copyright law.

Those pirating media can also face lawsuits from media companies, which happened to five UCLA students last year. The five were sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegal file sharing. One of the students, Diana Li, said the incident cost her around $4,000 in total.

Curtiss said the Get Legal program has been introduced at no cost to the university, ensuring it will have no effect on student fees.

One intended incentive for legal downloading with Get Legal is iTunes’ donation of five cents of every $0.99 song purchased through the program to UCLA student governments. The donated money would be split between the Undergraduate Student Association Council, the Graduate Students Association and the On Campus Housing Council.

But some students do not consider iTunes’ donations to student government incentive enough to use Get Legal vendors.

First-year economics and political science student Rajan Trehan said he would prefer the songs be cheaper rather than have such a small amount go to student government.

But student government leaders said even though the donation is small, the money would help.

USAC President Jenny Wood said Get Legal is “a positive program that offers students an easy way to ... help student initiatives on campus.”

Wood also said while USAC does not yet consider the campaign to be a substantial fundraising mechanism, it could potentially provide significant funding for USAC in the future.

“It is great that students ... know that a portion of the funds they spend will come back to benefit them on campus,” said GSA President Jared Fox said.

Last week, the vendor Cdigix also announced it will make its music-subscription service free to students of partner schools, Curtiss said. This would be another incentive for students to use the program.

Cdigix once charged a monthly fee for students to download and listen to songs on their computers, but UCLA students can now access this for free, though they will still have to pay in order to move these songs to a portable device or CD.

However, Cdigix is only compatible with Microsoft Windows PCs and its downloadable files are only usable on portable devices compatible with WMA/DRM files, meaning students using Apple computers and iPods cannot use the program.

Curtiss acknowledged the Cdigix partnership will not help students who want music to use with iTunes or an iPod.