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This may seem like a shameless plug for a service, but it's an easy and LEGAL way to get free music. http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/aboutus.php Basically it's an add supported service compatible with Windows XP DRM. You have to be actively enrolled in a subscribing university [list here: http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/affiliated.php%5D. If you're school is already footing the bill, why not? Don't pay RIAA tax twice if you don't have to.

This may seem like a shameless plug for a service, but it's an easy and LEGAL way to get free music. http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/aboutus.php Basically it's an add supported service compatible with Windows XP DRM. You have to be actively enrolled in a subscribing university [list here: http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/affiliated.php%5D. If you're school is already footing the bill, why not? Don't pay RIAA tax twice if you don't have to.

They mention "Ruckus" as an alternative to piracy. Here:

There are many easy and inexpensive ways to access or purchase entertainment content lawfully: Ruckus offers a free music service to college students, http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/; songs are sold individually for less than a dollar; you can rent movies through the mail or buy them online; or you can even visit the library. Downloading content illegally through the Stanford network is not an acceptable option.

Ruckus is not an acceptable option; songs are DRM'd and Windows Media Player only.

I know of nowhere songs are sold individually for less than a dollar, and they don't mention anywhere. I thought Ruckus was free?

Renting movies through the mail and buying them online both cost money, require time to ship, and require the student to get off their ass and go get their mail. Yet the only legal downloading is encumbered with DRM, except (maybe) on iTunes, which (last I checked) has only the iTunes interface for buying stuff, meaning you can't simply buy a song with a browser on an alternate OS.

The only thing that comes close is renting DVDs at the local video store. You could just run over, rent 10 or 20 at once (or however many they let you), rip them all (or however many you have the disk space for), then take them all back the next day. You then have at least a week, maybe a month's worth of movies if you're also taking time for schoolwork. And it's not like piracy is a huge concern here, really -- you can only watch the same movies over and over so many times, right? In any case, when you're done, you're going to have to go get more. And, unless you're either made of disk space or burning DVDs like mad, you're going to have to delete most of the ones you rented last time to make way for these ones.

Here's their site. I haven't had the chance to try it out yet, because it's Windows only, and right now I'm on a Mac laptop only. Them's the breaks. I know the University doesn't have any responsibility to support less common OSes, but their bookstore is an Apple dealer and the certified repair shop for Apples in town. They showcase Apple machines--all of the laptops, iMacs, and the PowerMac--and just one Windows machine. Because of this, there's a decent amount of Mac laptops on campus. I see them around.

Other students don't like it because they can't put any music onto their MP3 players where they listen to most of their music, unless they pay, and it won't work on the ever popular iPod period. (I don't have one, but that's the majority MP3 player at my school, and the bookstore has a copious display case dedicated to them, too.) That's not surprising, of course, since Apple doesn't license their DRM out. The only MP3 players that work with Ruckus are ones with Microsoft's Playsforsure with subscription services. Evidently, having Playsforsure isn't quite enough to be sure it will work. Ruckus also serves as a movie serving network, but our campus hasn't had that running yet. The student organization is currently investing in the expensive on-campus download servers required to operate that service.

This article on BusinessWeek says that Ruckus can net anywhere from $10 to $100 dollars a student. I'm really just hoping my university is closer to the $10 side of the spectrum.

Some people may remember RPI for its consistent involvement in the RIAA college lawsuits.

Needless to say, as soon as the first group of 30 were sued for using i2hub, the student council inexplicably gets an offer from the otherwise unknown music service known as Ruckus. The student council was at least nice enough to give us a chance to respond to a survey regarding our acceptance of a music service on campus, but despite an underwhelming response of 23%, RPI inexplicably chooses Ruckus to be its provider, despite the fact that 2/3rds of poll respondants wanted MP3 downloads, 90% wanted to burn CDs, and 85% wanted to download and own the music, and Ruckus is, of course, none of these, supporting only Microsoft DRM.

Despite some quiet rancor about the deal, and its possible relationship to a 'blackmail' deal with the RIAA, the student council twisted the facts and approved Ruckus anyway, intending to keep it through the 06-07 year, despite some qualms about its quality of service.

I haven't seen any long-term reviews of it either though, but I'm not particularly a fan of it. Too bad we students will have to pay for it in the end even if we don't want it.

My University used to go by a dont ask don't tell policy when it came to p2p sharing. But then my University was also a large target for some reason for indictments to hundereds of it's students from teh RIAA. Many lawsuits as the Uni was forced to hand over identities.

Then my Uni decided to sign up for a liscened music sharing program called Ruckus. Students have actually become accustomed to it even though it locks the music into it's own player. I think It's a decent strategy to effectively curb illegal sharing and thus the number of indictments.

This would depend fully on the content, I think... who would pay to see TV shows and such when they could use a TV?

Movie "rentals" aren't out of the question, to be sure... ... but if the service is akin to, say, a subscription to CNN.com or something... I am not sure how well it would do (heck, any pay-for-video service on the web, I just am not sure on how it would do) ...

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Admitedly, I've tried one (albeit for free, as the network was in beta) ... http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/

Essentially its needs its own web browser, so I guess technically Google's got a leg up (and their video format is different, Ruckus uses WMV) ... but in the end, would I pay for them?

Probably not.

Someone might, I suppose, but how many need to before it becomes profitable?

Speculation is useless.

From the Ruckus website's "How it Works" section.
http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/how_it_works.html

Content Protection:
Ruckus will protect copyrighted content and enforce usage rules with digital rights management (DRM) technology from Microsoft.

Yea, I also saw this which is about as much help.
Basically, they are going to raise money to license content so they can be almost like an college-branded "iTunes buffet" service..
In that case, yea maybe.. but with strict terms I am sure of passing around the data.
I will belive it when I see it..

bookmarked it in my HA profile to keep watch.

Sure, it's a sparse on who they specifically have deals with but anyone with half a brain will make sure there's an indemnification clause in the contract.

"We are negotiating special volume-discount licensing fees for the academic community from music labels and studios"