“In an effort to prevent illegal file sharing on campus, Florida State University is on the verge of finalizing a deal with Apple Computer, Inc. — a deal that would provide free iTunes software to students and allow them to download music for 99 cents per song,” Erica Rodriguez writes for fsunews.com.

MacDailyNews Note: Florida State boasts 36,683 total students representing all 50 states and 132 countries; 28,740 undergraduates; 6,605 graduate students; 56% female, 44% male; 23.5% minority; approximately 7,172 freshmen.

“Carl Baker, the director of university computer systems at the FSU Academic Computing and Network Services Department, was appointed chair of a committee charged with finding a way to stop illegal file sharing on campus. The committee, known as the Online Music Committee, was created this spring semester and is made up of members of FSU’s administration and a small group of students,” Rodriguez writes.

“Baker said the idea originated from a concern for students who live on campus and download music illegally. He said that not only are they subject to legal action from the members of the recording industry, but also are more likely to download files with possible viruses, trojans, worms and other harmful variants that may exist in those files,” Rodriguez writes. “‘Our experience so far has been that there are a lot of students who are using iTunes now,’ Baker said. ‘This just makes it more available for everybody else to use it. My understanding is that the quality that some of the music that people download illegally is not very good, and sometimes you don’t really know what you are getting. You might be getting something that is infected with a virus.’”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Since iTunes software is, ahem, already free and the songs are, ahem, already 99 cents per song, there must be something more to this deal than is being reported in the full article. Since we already reported on Apple’s debut of their ‘iTunes on Campus’ institutional site license program back in April, we’ll spell it out:

The iTunes on Campus program includes an iTunes institutional site license that allows universities and colleges to provide students with the iTunes application – the world