Campus

Ruckus Drops Licensing Fees, Makes Campus Music Service Free

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 22, 2007 - 10:10am.

Herndon, Va. - Marking a major shift in strategy, Ruckus, a legal music downloading service aimed at college campuses, said on Monday that it will stop charging licensing fees to colleges and universities, instead making its service available for free to all students with valid ".edu" e-mail addresses.

Ruckus, Merit to Offer Free Digital Music Services at Michigan Colleges

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 18, 2007 - 1:50pm.

Herndon, Va. - Ruckus Network, a provider of legal campus media download services, announced on Thursday an agreement with Merit Network, which provides broadband access in Michigan colleges, to offer the Ruckus service for free to Michigan college students. Virginia-based Ruckus provides its multimedia download service, which features a library of more than 2.1 million songs and videos, at more than 100 colleges and universities -- including Princeton, Brown and UC Berkeley.

Campus Download Service Ruckus Joins Internet2 Project

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 24, 2006 - 10:57am.

Herndon, Va. - Ruckus, a provider of digital entertainment services to college campuses, said that it has joined the Michigan-based Internet2 consortium, and will collaborate with other members to develop and test new content distribution and authentication technologies. The company said that its membership also will allow it to provide students at its 208 member universities faster access to its multimedia service, which allows schools to legally access and share a digital library of classroom-related multimedia.

Ruckus Signs Michigan State to Campus Media Download Service

Authored by dmw on January 11, 2006 - 3:58am.

Herndon, Va. - Ruckus, a provider of legal campus music and media download services, said on Wednesday that it has signed Michigan State University as a new client. Under the deal, Ruckus will provide a campus-wide multimedia network for the school's 45,000 students, faculty and staff. William Raduchel, the chairman and CEO of Ruckus, is an alumnus of Michigan State.

RIAA Sues More Internet2 Campus Song-Swappers for Infringement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 31, 2005 - 5:29am.

Washington -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has expanded its copyright infringement litigation against collegiate file-swappers using the ultra-fast Internet2 network, last week filing a second wave of lawsuits against 91 people at 33 universities. The new lawsuits follow the RIAA's initial round of lawsuits against Internet2 users filed last month. "As long as students continue to corrupt this specialized academic network for the flagrant theft of music, we will continue to make it clear that there are consequences for these unlawful actions," said RIAA president Cary Sherman. In addition, the RIAA said it sued another 649 "John Doe" individuals for copyright infringement on public Internet file-sharing networks like Kazaa, LimeWire and Grokster.

Napster Inks Deals With Six Schools for Campus Music Services

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 19, 2004 - 5:12am.

Los Angeles -- Napster, the digital music service unit of Roxio, announced on Monday that it has signed agreements with six schools to offer campus digital music services. The new deals with Cornell, George Washington University, Middlebury College, the University of Miami, USC and Wright State will complement Napster's existing agreements with Penn State University and the University of Rochester. Napster did not disclose whether students will be paying for the basic service as part of their tuition, but they will be charged $0.99 to burn tracks to CD or transfer them to portable players. Some schools will utilize Napster and IBM's "Super Peer" application, which caches the most popular Napster content on on-site IBM servers managed remotely by Napster. "Penn State's students have been thrilled with the Napster experience, downloading as many as 100,000 songs each day," said Penn State president Graham Spanier. "We see our Napster implementation as central to our effort to create a more student-centered university while at the same time offering an alternative to music piracy and copyright infringement."

Tennessee Colleges Reject Napster Offer for Campus Digital Music Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 3, 2004 - 3:29am.

Murfreesboro, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Board of Regents, which presides over 45 state universities and 180,000 students, has rejected an offer from Napster to provide a digital music subscription service at a cost of $9.99 per month per student, the Associated Press reported. Napster has launched pilot programs at both Penn State and the University of Rochester, but the financial terms of those deals call for the music service to be provided at a steep discount, according to TheRegister. The $9.99 mandatory fee, combined with the perception that illegal downloading doesn't pose a specific problem for the schools, was the reasoning for the Board's rejection of the offer, Bob Adams, the Regents' vice chancellor for business and finance, told AP.

tags: Napster | Campus | Digital Music | Tennessee Colleges |

MIT Students Create Online Music Network Using Campus Cable TV System

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2003 - 10:13am.

Cambridge, Mass. -- Two students at MIT have created what they believe to be a legal means for students to access digital music on demand through the campus's cable television network. The Library Access to Music Project (LAMP), created by MIT students Keith Winstein and Josh Mandel, allows faculty and students to choose songs to listen to from an online library and play them through stereos or TVs, but does not permit downloading or copying. By using the school's analog cable TV system, LAMP appears to take advantage of less-stringent copyright laws and fall under licenses the school already pays to performing rights organizations. The streaming songs LAMP uses are being provided by Seattle-based Loudeye Technologies, which has licenses from all five major record labels. The system features 16 channels of pre-programmed radio, and lets users become the DJ and program 80-minute programming blocks from the 3,500 CDs in the LAMP library. Winstein and Mandel plan to publish the Linux software that powers LAMP for free so that other schools may implement similar systems. LAMP was funded by iCampus, a research alliance between MIT and Microsoft Research focused on furthering education through faculty and student technology projects.

tags: Internet | Cable TV | Campus | MIT |

New Jersey Institute of Technology Bans File-Sharing on Campus Network

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 2, 2003 - 8:19am.

San Francisco -- In the wake of a lawsuit filed by the recording industry against four college students accused of copyright infringement via file-sharing networks, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has banned the use of file-sharing software like Kazaa, Grokster and Gnutella on its campus network, Wired News reported on Friday. The school is using "traffic shaping" software to monitor its network for the telltale signs of file-sharing, in addition to prohibiting the use of the well-known file-sharing services. "Our institution was receiving calls from the Recording Industry Association of America on almost a daily basis, identifying addresses that belonged to our students," Jack Gentul, dean of students at NJIT, told Wired News. "It was growing in number to the point in which we couldn't handle it. When I can't get my own 13-year-old to stop (file-sharing), I don't know how I can get my entire campus to stop." The record industry lauded the school's decision. "The specific action a higher education institution chooses to take to prevent this type of illegal behavior varies and is up to the individual university, but we absolutely applaud those who take such theft seriously," an RIAA spokesperson told Wired. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58698,00.html

tags: File-Sharing | Campus | New Jersey | Institute of Technology |