“Piracy goes on at Guilford. It goes on at any college campus,” said senior Kass James, an IT&S employee. The proliferation of file-sharing programs like Limewire and Bittorrent have enabled students across the United States to access music, movies, and software without paying for them. To combat the increase, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have increased their efforts to identify and prosecute offenders.A letter from the RIAA prompted a decision to make Ruckus available for students.

“There was a letter in the spring that was sent to a student that was from a company that the RIAA contracts with,” said Erin Nettifee, director of user services at IT&S. “That was sent to us and the issue was addressed with the student as a judicial issue.”

“We neither have the manpower nor do we have the desire to really police the campus.” James said. “So instead of policing the campus, what we’re doing is offering a legal alternative that Guilford is paying for and we’re encouraging students to use it.”

Ruckus is an ad-based service, geared towards college students, that enables the legal sharing of music. The service requires no fees, and is free to download and use. Students need only register on the website and install the program to access music libraries.

“Guilford is being really nice in offering this; most other colleges are just policing their students and cracking down, and we’re trying to take a more proactive approach and positively reinforce the fact that there are alternatives for free,” James said.

Once students graduate, Ruckus costs $8.95 a month to continue using. On top of that, the music it provides is laced with Digital Rights Management software, which prevents it from being used in devices like iPods and Windows’ Zune media player.

Even though Ruckus loads its MP3s with DRM, the inconvenience is negligible compared to the risk students take by using unsafe programs like Limewire, which are notorious for allowing hackers and identity thieves to access critical files and personal information.

“If you’re downloading things through Limewire, you’re just leaving your door wide open for viruses, spyware, Trojans, government worms, non-government worms; it’s stupid,” James said. “Not only are you leaving your door open for legal repercussions, but Limewire basically negates any sort of antivirus software.