What's All That Ruckus?

Much of our time on campus this semester will be spent consuming music, television shows and movies through our computers. Much of that entertainment will be obtained through electronic methods — some legal, most not. Many times before, I have written about those more seedy methods of obtaining music on campus, so I’m not going to do so again. (Freshmen: visit cornellsun.com and search for “DC++” if you are interested.)

No, this semester’s inaugural Optimized Queries was inspired by an email sent by Kent Hubbell, the dean of students, to all of his charges at the beginning of orientation. One paragraph in particular drew my attention.

“I also want to draw extra attention to the issue of file share programs and the Cornell Network,” Hubbell wrote. As he reminds us, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), its counterpart in the film industry — collectively known as the “AAs” — are pursuing an extensive legal campaign against alleged “pirates” across the country. While the proper term for the offense is actually “copyright infringement,” the bottom line is that illegally downloading music, movies or software from file sharing networks puts you “at greater risk of detection and liability,” to use Hubbell’s words.

There are many legal alternatives for downloading entertainment. However, Cornellians with a conscience who elect to use these methods go from the frying pan into the fire. Because of a bandwidth limit — a restriction on the amount of data you can send back and forth from your computer — that exists on all ResNet connections, if you choose to use download services like iTunes you go from the possibility of being nailed by the AAs to the certainty of being hammered with over-usage charges by CIT.

Now, if you get caught, your NUBB (network usage-based billing) charges will likely pale in comparison to the “settlement fees” that the AAs will exact from you; Hubbell cited fines as high as $150,000 per infringement (i.e. per song, movie, etc. downloaded). Meanwhile, getting caught illegally downloading remains unlikely, especially when using internal networks like DC++. Hubbell says that 40 students were forced to pay up last year, but when considered in the context of the thousands that have downloaded material over their years on the hill, this is still a small percentage. Given this statistic, Cornell needs to do a lot more to encourage legal alternatives.

The University has made one official music service available to students. Ruckus is free to students during the academic term and the summer. Ruckus is the second attempt to provide a legitimate download service on campus after CIT provided a version of Napster in 2004 that was killed before the 2006 term. However, like its predecessor, Ruckus has major issues that prevent its widespread adoption. The most significant problem is that, because it uses a digital rights management (DRM) program engineered by Microsoft, it is incompatible with Apple’s iPod music player. This is a huge deal, given that the iPod and its cousin the iPhone represent a 70 to 90 percent share of the music player market according to recent estimates. As a matter of fact, you can’t even transfer songs to a compatible music player without subscribing to Ruckus to Go for $20 per term.

Every music service has its downsides; even iTunes only works with iPod/iPhone and Mac OS or Windows. Thus, even if the University were to make a deal to make the iTunes Music Store available to everyone, some portion of the student body would be excluded.

The obvious solution here is that CIT should put together a list of popular legal services and excuse all bandwidth charges to IP addresses belonging to those services.

Of course, this would not discourage people who are determined to get a five-fingered discount on their music — but then again, neither does Ruckus. Nor would it do anything to combat software piracy, which I believe is one of the more prevalent reasons for DC++’s existence; this is a more complex problem that the software industry has yet to decide how to solve. However, making these policy changes would effectively eliminate the penalty that students face for making the right decision. Combine these changes with, say, a $25 iTunes gift card for all freshmen at the beginning of the year, and you’d be well on your way to fighting back the tides of copyright infringement.