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
Syracuse University students will no longer have to pay to use Ruckus, the school's legal music downloading service, since the service switched to a free system about two weeks ago.
Ruckus, a for-profit business that provides the service to SU, initiated the change in an attempt to attract more student users.
Ruckus' new business model offers students music for free and generates revenue from additional services, such as optional movie and television downloads. SU pays nothing, but offers Ruckus the use of its network and maintains servers for the company.
"We want to drive 50 percent of the population into the service, and we can with this model," said Brad Vaughn, vice president of campus sales for Ruckus.
Vaughn said Syracuse had approximately 1,000 subscribers before making the service free, a number that leapt to 1,600 shortly afterwards.
"We're growing at 100 subscribers per day," he said the Friday before the free system was announced to students through an e-mail on Feb. 13. One week later, Vaughn reported the total number of subscribers had grown to 2,000.
Whether Ruckus can overcome the apathy of Syracuse students regarding the service and their fondness for illegal file sharing remains to be seen. When the program was introduced in its fee-based form at the beginning of the fall semester, results were less than expected.
"In my mind, the adoption wasn't large enough to have a significant impact on reducing the complaints (of illegal file sharing)," said Gary McGinnis, director of client services at Computing and Media Services.
Debbie Beishline, a computer consultant at CMS who handles copyright violation complaints, said while the university is not liable for the actions of students on the Internet, the primary motivation for signing on with Ruckus last semester was to keep students out of trouble.
"It's not costing the university anything. Why not offer that to the students?" Beishline said. "The last thing that we want to do is have our students being subpoenaed."
Ruckus, a for-profit business that provides the service to SU, initiated the change in an attempt to attract more student users.
Ruckus' new business model offers students music for free and generates revenue from additional services, such as optional movie and television downloads. SU pays nothing, but offers Ruckus the use of its network and maintains servers for the company.
"We want to drive 50 percent of the population into the service, and we can with this model," said Brad Vaughn, vice president of campus sales for Ruckus.
Vaughn said Syracuse had approximately 1,000 subscribers before making the service free, a number that leapt to 1,600 shortly afterwards.
"We're growing at 100 subscribers per day," he said the Friday before the free system was announced to students through an e-mail on Feb. 13. One week later, Vaughn reported the total number of subscribers had grown to 2,000.
Whether Ruckus can overcome the apathy of Syracuse students regarding the service and their fondness for illegal file sharing remains to be seen. When the program was introduced in its fee-based form at the beginning of the fall semester, results were less than expected.
"In my mind, the adoption wasn't large enough to have a significant impact on reducing the complaints (of illegal file sharing)," said Gary McGinnis, director of client services at Computing and Media Services.
Debbie Beishline, a computer consultant at CMS who handles copyright violation complaints, said while the university is not liable for the actions of students on the Internet, the primary motivation for signing on with Ruckus last semester was to keep students out of trouble.
"It's not costing the university anything. Why not offer that to the students?" Beishline said. "The last thing that we want to do is have our students being subpoenaed."
