Ruckus Network and eMusic are being offered for free to students this academic year as a consequence of the findings of a university-wide panel on intellectual property. These two new music network download services are available to students as part of a year-long trial, during which time the WSA and the university will assess their popularity and feasibility for the long-term.
“We came to a decision as a committee that that’s how we want to deal with [illegal music downloading],” said WSA President Jesse Watson. “It’s cool! There’s no cost to students, and we’re going to look at it over the course of the year, see what people think of it and decide if we want to buy it. It’s not at all clear if we want to buy it, but it’s nice that we’ve got it for a year.”
Ruckus allows users to download 1.2 million licensed tracks from different labels, major and independent, as well as student-created music. The service also provides movie and TV downloads, which will be free of charge for students until October. Similar to Facebook, Ruckus users can create their own profiles, add friends, and upload photos. They can also write reviews, send suggestions, and create music playlists for others to download.
eMusic has a smaller selection of 600,000 tracks, from indie to classical to jazz music and more, and only permits 15 downloads per month. eMusic, unlike Ruckus, is compatible with Macs and provides universally compatible files that can be put on a CD or an iPod. To use both services in conjunction, students must pay $10 per semester.
The decision to provide a legal venue for music sharing and downloading comes amidst widespread concern about rampant music and movie piracy on college campuses and music industry crackdowns on students. Recently, a University of Arizona student was sentenced to three months of incarceration for music and movie piracy. Universities are signing on to programs that provide students with legal venues for file-sharing to avoid such perpetrations.
There have been similar instances at Wesleyan, with a few students as the focus of legal inquiry. But the university has not gotten involved beyond its legal obligation in forwarding litigation to students from third parties.
The University does not have any desire to adopt a punitive approach towards students who engage in music piracy on campus, according to Watson.
“It wasn’t so much responding to a threat,” Watson said. “[That] may be how the University was thinking of it. The committee was thinking of it in terms of us as an academic community having a deep commitment to this idea of intellectual property. Plagiarism is taken very, very seriously here. We are producers of intellectual property. Philosophically, it’s an important thing for us to talk about. That’s how the committee members and I saw the purpose of the committee, rather than us thinking, ‘Wow! We’re going to get sued!’”
It still remains to be seen how many students will show interest in the program. Some have voiced concerns that they had not really been informed about either service.
“I know very little about Ruckus,” said Rachel Kiel ’07. “Someone slipped something under my door, I think. Where do you even get it?”
According to Watson, the WSA aims to more effectively promote Ruckus, but had previously been sidetracked due to recent elections. Students can access more information and precise instructions on how to subscribe to Ruckus at the ITS Web site at http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/ruckus.
Leave a Reply