IUSA brings music downloading service

After making it a key issue last year during its campaign and after months of planning, the IU Student Association announced Monday it will be bringing Ruckus -- a free, legal music downloading service -- to IU students. \nGarrett Scharton, IUSA chief of external affairs, said the program will officially launch on campus the week of Oct. 16 with the recent approval from the IU legal counsel and from Ruckus. \n"Our goals are to provide a safe, legal option for students to access music," IUSA President Betsy Henke said in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, students are being bombarded with illegal ways to obtain music, (and) Ruckus gives them a chance to make the right choice."\nRuckus provides users with unlimited access to 1.5 million licensed songs, but songs cannot be downloaded to Apple iPods. The service will be available to everyone with an IU-Bloomington e-mail account, including students living both on and off campus.\nThe registration process to create a Ruckus account simply requires that users enter their University e-mail address and choose a password. They can then search and download music to their computers, Scharton said.\n"Students will now be surrounded in an environment where there are options," Henke said. "No longer are they forced to pay out of pocket for music that is more easily stolen. Ruckus gives them an opportunity to listen, organize and discover music at no cost."\nScharton said this will be a welcome change considering the options now are to either "go broke or break the law."\nThere will be no fee to students or IUSA for use of the service. Some smaller universities do have to pay for the service, but Ruckus has waived the fee for IU because of the large size of the student body, said Peter Opere, the Ruckus sales account executive who has been working with IUSA. However, Opere said students who graduate and lose their IUB e-mail accounts can choose to pay a fee of about $9 a month to keep the music they have downloaded and to continue to use the service. \nIn addition to digital music, Ruckus also hosts a digital video service that includes movies and TV shows. However, this service is not included in the proposed partnership between IU and Ruckus, and if students wish to use this service, it will cost $15 per semester.\nImplementing a music downloading service at IUB was an integral part of the platform for the Hoosier campaign. Once elected, executives immediately began reviewing downloading services. Ruckus, which seemed the most user-friendly and had the highest user ratings, beat out iTunes, Cdigix and Peer Impact for IUSA's bid, Scharton said.\nAlthough iTunes was considered, it wanted to charge students more than the regular price the company offers with its pay-per-song service, Scharton said. \n"I wouldn't even put iTunes and Ruckus in the same category," Scharton said.\nSome universities currently using Ruckus have a 95 percent usage rate, Scharton said. The extensive list of participating universities includes University of Southern California, Wisconsin and University of North Carolina. Ball State implemented the program this fall, Scharton said.\n"Both Mac and PC users can use the program," Henke said. "There is an additional program needed to more easily use Ruckus on a Mac, but this extra step is a simple request."\nBut additional software that would make her Apple computer compatible with programs that are only supported by the Windows operating system does not appeal to senior Amy Mills.\n"It's the extra step -- I'm not sure I'd take the time to download the extra software," Mills said.\nHenke, a Mac user herself, disagreed.\n"I use a Mac, and I don't think one extra step is too much to ask to make downloading legal," she said.\nOnce downloaded from Ruckus to a user's computer, a $20 per semester fee will allow the music to be moved to almost any type of media player except for Apple's popular iPod, Opere said. Though Scharton said programs exist to allow users to download Ruckus' music to iPods, he said IUSA in no way encourages illegal uses of the service.\nApple enthusiast and junior Chris Mart said he does not see the benefit of a music downloading program that is not compatible with the popular iPod.\n"That sucks," Mart said. "If I can't even use it on my iPod, why would I even worry about it if there are other ways I personally can download music?"\nJunior Alli Newell said she has had personal experience with the problems caused by illegally downloading music. Newell, who used Limewire during the fall 2005 semester, was contacted by University Information Technology Services after representatives discovered she had about 15 shared songs on her Macintosh's hard drive. In order to keep her IU network account, Newell was told to delete the shared music within 24 hours. She also had to take a test to prove to IU that she understood copyright privileges.\nNewell now buys all of her digital music from iTunes. Even though she has a Macintosh, she said she would download additional software for a chance to use Ruckus and legally access music for free.\n"I've had Macs my whole life, so I'm used to doing a few extra things for it," Newell said. "If the extra software is accessible and easy to download, I don't think it's a big deal."\nDownloading the additional software is a much better option than stealing music, Scharton said.