In its continued quest to thwart illegal music downloading, the Recording Industry Association of America dispatched another wave of pre-litigation summary letters to 23 universities on March 21, including schools such as DePaul University, Boston University and nearby Purdue University.
The letters, issued for computer IP addresses, allow the universities to catch illegal music downloaders by tracing the IP address to a specific location, said Jenni Engebretsen, director of communications for the RIAA.
Ball State University was absent from the two most recent mailings, and Asher Lisec, former Student Government Association president, said the legal downloading service Ruckus helped contribute to this.
"There has been around three million student downloads here," Lisec said. "It shows students are using it."
Ruckus, which came to Ball State during the Fall Semester, is available nationwide to any student with a .edu e-mail address. Ed Cheely, director of campus sales for the Ruckus Network, said students can use the service regardless of whether a school has a Ruckus server on campus.
All students visit Ruckus.com to select the music they want to download, Cheely said. If the student is accessing the Internet from within a school network that has a Ruckus server on it, they use that server, he said. Students off campus, and those at universities without a Ruckus server installed on campus, are directed to a public Ruckus server, Cheely said.
Ruckus' network has grown exponentially during the past year, meaning more universities and more users are signing up and logging on, he said.
"We partnered with 20 universities a year ago, now we're over 100," he said, "Once one or two schools have been successful, other schools want it too."
Cheely is pleased with Ruckus' success at Ball State, he said.
"Ball State is among the top," he said. "Without a doubt one of our best partner schools."
Ball State students are among the most enthusiastic customers, Cheely said. More than half of the student body has signed up for the service, he said.
Nevada Drollinger, a sophomore religious studies and classics major, said she started using Ruckus at the beginning of the year and has been impressed with it.
"It's an easy way to get music access for free," she said.
Drollinger said another benefit is being able to find artists that are new or hard to find songs from.
"I'm pretty excited because I've gotten some rare albums, like some from Japanese rock bands," she said.
Sophomore exercise science major Rachel Ourand said Ruckus has a good selection of music and she doesn't have to feel guilty for downloading the music.
"It is free legal music and there are no worries about getting in trouble or getting viruses," she said.
Engebretsen, of RIAA, said students who do not follow a legal music downloading route and are caught will receive a pre-litigation summary letter from the RIAA, giving them an opportunity to settle by paying a discounted fine.
Ruckus is a good service for students to use to avoid these letters because it won't lead to any fines or other penalties, she said.
The service, which does not work on Macintosh computers, is adware and pop-up free and there is no limit to the number of songs and movies people can download, Engebretsen said.
Cheely said students save a great deal of money by using Ruckus.
"If you download three or four million songs, you've saved three or four million dollars, in a sense," he said.
Cheely said the Ruckus online community is a way to discover new music. It is not complicated or hard to use, he said.
"We have tried to keep it very simple," he said. "We are continuing to build our music library. College students are exposed to more music than they will ever be."
DownloadTo download Ruckus, go to ruckus.com
Ruckus is available for faculty, staff and students, but is only free for students. Ruckus is not compatible with iPods or Macintosh
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
