Spring Break
The Daily OrangeMusic provider Ruckus offers free service to SU
By Nick Mokey
Posted: 2/23/06, 11:53 PM EST Section: News
While the majority of reported violations are for music downloads, other media are problematic as well. Beishline said she received 24 complaints of students downloading music, 17 for movies, 10 for games, five for audio books, four for software and two for television shows in October 2005. Although the breakdown varies from month to month, music downloads seem to account for roughly half of the copyright violations occurring at SU.
But there is hope for Ruckus's free model. In November, while other schools were still offering Ruckus to students at $15 per semester, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made it available for free by subsidizing the per-student cost.
The excitement generated there far surpassed the reaction on other campuses.
"It was phenomenal," said Max Yates, RPI's student body president. "We had something like 1,000 (users) by the day that it opened, because students found out that they could register early."
Due to its limited funding, the school had to cap registrations at 3,000, a number they easily reached, even with a student body of more than 7,000 students, according to The College Board.
"We actually have a waiting list," Yates said, "Ruckus monitors usage, and if they see that somebody has not used the program in two months, then they replace that user's access with somebody on the waiting list."
By comparison, Syracuse has more than twice as many students, half as many registered Ruckus users and no limits on registration.
One reason for the contrast in user registration might be the severity of the illegal file sharing problem on each campus. According to Yates, RPI had 32 lawsuits filed against students for copyright violations in 2005 alone, prior to introducing Ruckus. Beishline said she was not aware of any such lawsuits at Syracuse.
Other non-technical schools that have recently switched from the fee-based model are experiencing similar unenthusiastic receptions. Michigan State University was the first school to shift over to the free version of Ruckus in mid-January. Although the move more than doubled their former subscriptions, administrators still found the numbers lackluster, said Katherine Ball, a communications manager at MSU's Academic Computing and Network Services.
But there is hope for Ruckus's free model. In November, while other schools were still offering Ruckus to students at $15 per semester, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made it available for free by subsidizing the per-student cost.
The excitement generated there far surpassed the reaction on other campuses.
"It was phenomenal," said Max Yates, RPI's student body president. "We had something like 1,000 (users) by the day that it opened, because students found out that they could register early."
Due to its limited funding, the school had to cap registrations at 3,000, a number they easily reached, even with a student body of more than 7,000 students, according to The College Board.
"We actually have a waiting list," Yates said, "Ruckus monitors usage, and if they see that somebody has not used the program in two months, then they replace that user's access with somebody on the waiting list."
By comparison, Syracuse has more than twice as many students, half as many registered Ruckus users and no limits on registration.
One reason for the contrast in user registration might be the severity of the illegal file sharing problem on each campus. According to Yates, RPI had 32 lawsuits filed against students for copyright violations in 2005 alone, prior to introducing Ruckus. Beishline said she was not aware of any such lawsuits at Syracuse.
Other non-technical schools that have recently switched from the fee-based model are experiencing similar unenthusiastic receptions. Michigan State University was the first school to shift over to the free version of Ruckus in mid-January. Although the move more than doubled their former subscriptions, administrators still found the numbers lackluster, said Katherine Ball, a communications manager at MSU's Academic Computing and Network Services.
