Over the past three months, more than 1,200 college students from 57 different campuses nationwide have been put in their place by the Recording Industry Artists of America.
For what? Illegally distributing copyrighted material without a license. Translation? Taking free downloaded content such as music, movies and television shows, and sharing it for free without permission.
Now the University of New Hampshire is offering its students a cost-effective alternative. Enter Ruckus, a Web site that allows college students the opportunity to download free music to their computers without persecution from groups such as the RIAA.
"If you have a compatible system, or a compatible MP3 player, and you want to take advantage of this service, you are taking advantage of service that is free of viruses," said Dr. Anne Lawing, UNH's senior assistant vice president for student and academic services.
"I am told that DC++ & Limewire do have viruses. You can take advantage of virus-free atmosphere," she said. "The cost is reasonable if you want to pay it, and you have the peace of mind knowing that what you're doing is legal (and) legitimate."
Illegal downloading can be costly
The decision to bring Ruckus to campus had been months in the works, according to Lawing. But the announcement of a partnership between UNH and Ruckus came Wednesday to students via e-mail, one month after 30 UNH students received pre-litigation letters from the RIAA.
The letters gave students two choices: settle for $3,000 or face a lawsuit. If a judge were to rule in favor of the RIAA, the penalties could range anywhere from $750 per item to $30,000.
Do the math. If a student had, say, 100 songs illegally shared on a program such as Limewire or DC++, the penalty at the very least would be $75,000. The maximum penalty? $3 million.
The RIAA showed just how serious it was when it engaged Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas in a lawsuit in early October. Thomas was the first person to turn down a settlement offer in favor of going to court.
A judge ruled that Thomas was in violation with 24 songs she had on her computer, and awarded damages of $9,250 per song. The grand total of Thomas' day in court was $222,000.
The RIAA is able to track students by tracing IP addresses from a host computer. In layman's terms, whenever you sign on to the Internet, your computer emits an IP address, which is like your home address on the information superhighway.
For what? Illegally distributing copyrighted material without a license. Translation? Taking free downloaded content such as music, movies and television shows, and sharing it for free without permission.
Now the University of New Hampshire is offering its students a cost-effective alternative. Enter Ruckus, a Web site that allows college students the opportunity to download free music to their computers without persecution from groups such as the RIAA.
"If you have a compatible system, or a compatible MP3 player, and you want to take advantage of this service, you are taking advantage of service that is free of viruses," said Dr. Anne Lawing, UNH's senior assistant vice president for student and academic services.
"I am told that DC++ & Limewire do have viruses. You can take advantage of virus-free atmosphere," she said. "The cost is reasonable if you want to pay it, and you have the peace of mind knowing that what you're doing is legal (and) legitimate."
Illegal downloading can be costly
The decision to bring Ruckus to campus had been months in the works, according to Lawing. But the announcement of a partnership between UNH and Ruckus came Wednesday to students via e-mail, one month after 30 UNH students received pre-litigation letters from the RIAA.
The letters gave students two choices: settle for $3,000 or face a lawsuit. If a judge were to rule in favor of the RIAA, the penalties could range anywhere from $750 per item to $30,000.
Do the math. If a student had, say, 100 songs illegally shared on a program such as Limewire or DC++, the penalty at the very least would be $75,000. The maximum penalty? $3 million.
The RIAA showed just how serious it was when it engaged Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas in a lawsuit in early October. Thomas was the first person to turn down a settlement offer in favor of going to court.
A judge ruled that Thomas was in violation with 24 songs she had on her computer, and awarded damages of $9,250 per song. The grand total of Thomas' day in court was $222,000.
The RIAA is able to track students by tracing IP addresses from a host computer. In layman's terms, whenever you sign on to the Internet, your computer emits an IP address, which is like your home address on the information superhighway.
The RIAA is able to trace the IP address to its source once it notices a file is illegally downloaded. But with so many people using the internet at a given time, its hard to trace each time a rule is broken.
Dave Hamilton, 36, a Durham resident and creator of MacObserver.com, has been in the Internet publishing business for several years. He said the RIAA uses a tactic of downloading a song for itself to prove that a student or other computer user has no right to distribute.
"I'm not an attorney, but it seems pretty clear that this is what
happens," Hamilton said. "The deal is, even if you went and bought a copy of Spoon's new album, the RIAA can be
fairly certain that you didn't buy a license to distribute it.. So by letting them
(anonymously) download it from you, they claim you illegally distributed it, and then
that's what they use to mount their offensive."
In the case of UNH, the RIAA traced 30 IP addresses back to students. The letters were then sent to UNH administration, which quietly passed them along to students to allow them the ability to deal with the situation privately.
UNH wouldn't release the students' names, and the RIAA only learned the identity of students following a subpoena issued to the university.
There are alternatives
The Ruckus program allows students to download an unlimited amount of media onto their computers free of charge. However, if students want to transfer that music, movie or TV show to a CD or MP3 player, they have to pay a $20 fee per semester. So, if a student wants to add 100 songs to an iPod, the cost would be 20 cents a song, cheaper than services like iTunes that charge 99 cents a song.
Most students seem happy with the addition of Ruckus. Jason Hilbert, a UNH senior, has taken advantage of the new program.
"The biggest benefit is being able to download entire albums of my favorite bands without having to worry about getting in trouble for it," Hilbert said. "Also, to go along with that, the fee of only $20 for an entire semester to be able to put songs on my iPod is a great deal."
Following the news of the RIAA's pre-litigation suits, New Hampshire college students seemed to be straddling the fence about using file-sharing programs.
Hampstead resident William Stevens, a UNH student, was angry about the RIAA's tactics.
"I do use file-sharing programs on campus, because it is within my reach and I feel as if it is a good medium of communication, not only of music and of movies, but of ideas," said Stevens, 19. "Not many of us would be willing to go pay for a movie that we thought might be of so-so quality. But it could be something that could change your life. It is the freedom of ideas that need to spread."
Even with the availability of Ruckus, Stevens said, he would continue to use other programs. He said they are easier to use and, frankly, cheaper.
"Ruckus player has poor quality music, but a great selection," he said. "Although an honest attempt by the university, illegal downloading will still happen. whether it be in the form of movies or music. It is a good idea, but (other file sharing programs are) still up and running, and won't go anywhere soon."
Hilbert agreed that if students were motivated to do so, they could find a way to circumvent the system.
"I think that illegal file sharing will still occur," he said. "People will use other methods to get music for free, or will find programs that will allow them to transfer Ruckus files to their MP3 players."
Currently, 169 colleges nationwide have collaboration agreements with Ruckus to provide their students with the service. UNH joins Keene State as the only two colleges in New Hampshire that have the service, according to the Ruckus Web site.
