We are glad the University is not invading our privacy on the network, rightfully allowing us to store files on Wesleyan servers and share them with the rest of the community. We also realize there was a need to provide a legal file-sharing system to students, as the University felt it could no longer turn a blind eye to the alleged “piracy” of movies and music. Recently, universities across the country have been providing students with legal file sharing systems, and we understand that Wesleyan is trying to keep up with this trend. However, we do not feel that Ruckus and eMusic were the proper services to offer.
When compared to other services such as the popular iTunes, Ruckus and eMusic are inferior. The selection of music on Ruckus is limited, and the fact that the songs and movies do not become the property of users once downloaded is a drawback. Once the free trial provided by the University is over, if students do not pay Ruckus a monthly fee, the downloaded files are taken away from users. Transferring music files to CDs and iPods is also a key feature of such services, though not possible through Ruckus, which is also not compatible with Macintosh computers. While eMusic works on Macintosh computers and allows files to be put on CDs and iPods, it has an even smaller selection of files and only allows 15 downloads per month. In addition, students who wish to use Ruckus and eMusic concurrently must pay ten dollars per semester.
Most students say they will not use Ruckus or eMusic, and the few who have attempted to utilize these services gave mostly negative reviews. Finding these university-provided file-sharing venues insufficient, most students will continue to acquire music files through other means. If attempting to alter this practice in good faith, then a new solution will have to be considered.
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