In the face of problems with illegal file-sharing among students on campus, Boston College has partnered with the Ruckus network, a pioneer in legal file-sharing, to bring free and legal music downloads to BC students.
With major legal issues accompanying the use of services such as MyTunes, KaZaa, and others (a BC student was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2003), the Ruckus network provides an alternative with a library of 1.5 million songs and over 4,000 movies and TV shows.
The site offers songs from every genre and include all of today’s most popular artists – from the newest Justin Timberlake album to The Fray and everything in between. It even allows students to view the most-downloaded songs at their university and for users to create downloadable playlists, like at iTunes’ music store.
From Ruckus.com students can download the music-player system and gain access to the free content. The music, however, is write-protected and will not transfer to iPods or work with iTunes. The Web site also includes a Facebook-like social network that allows users to “make friends,” share recent playlists, and post on a message wall. The system currently has 871 BC members signed up.
Related
- Students abuse Ruckus: Users strips anti-piracy code with third-party software
- Students spurn free music downloads
- Ruckus Service ‘Will No Longer Be Provided’
- Boston College sees spike in illegal downloads
- Penn St. drops Napster for Ruckus music
It seems pretty good for BC students it’s hard to believe something like this goes without an obvious catch.