Grand Marshal Max Yates ’06 said that in meetings with administrators he was told the contract is moving forward and will be approved once final arrangements are made and if the final legal go-ahead is given. While an availability date has still not been set, the service could be up and running the day following contract signing.

The current draft of the Ruckus contract calls for 3,000 RPI students to have access to Ruckus’s music library through next May. The cost of this service through May will be paid for by the not-for-profit Campus Action Network that has helped several schools start up and try legal music and movie file sharing programs.

The 3,000 students who will be able to register for accounts will be the first 3,000 to sign up once registration begins. While an earlier plan called for access to only those students who lived on campus, the current contract would allow any student who signs up on campus to register.

The Ruckus server is already on campus and basic testing is ongoing. A few trial accounts have also been created. As a result, RPI is listed in the list of schools at which a student can sign up, even though complete registration is not yet possible as Ruckus does not yet have the needed list of student e-mail addresses since the contract has not yet been signed.

According to Ruckus Senior Account Manager Claire Brunton, 24 campuses already have agreements with the company. Among the newest subscribing schools are the University of Southern California and Syracuse University.

Brunton said that at Alfred State College, which is now in its second year of an agreement with Ruckus, about 80 percent of the campus is using the service. She said it has basically become “part of the campus culture” there.

Ruckus’ digital music library seems to be grow fairly regularly—there are currently around 1.5 million songs that subscribers have access to. The music files use Microsoft Digital Rights Management and require a user to renew the license to play them every 30 days—which can be done through the Ruckus Player software, as long as the user has a valid subscription.

Once a license is granted or renewed for a song, it can be played while the listener is not on the network for 30 days on the computer on which it was downloaded. Brunton said in an e-mail that during this time, any WMA compatible player can be used, including Winamp, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch, and J. River.

Students looking to burn the music to a CD or to put it on a portable music player will have to pay extra. Brunton said that a new option for students is to pay for “Ruckus to Go” which allows unlimited downloads to any mp3 player for $19.95 for each full semester. Songs can also be purchased individually to be put on an mp3 player or burned, generally for under $1, through an agreement with another service.

Apple iPods, however, are currently not able to play back music from the Ruckus library, although Macintosh platform users also have the option of using emusic instead of the Ruckus music library. Brunton explained that this library has around 600,000 tracks, but instead of a student having unlimited downloads, the student can only download 15 tracks per month.

These tracks are not tethered to the network and thus can be put onto iPods or CDs that do not support Microsoft DRM. Brunton explained that iPods do not currently support the subscription model and that this is a problem that many of the music subscription services are facing. She explained, “Apple has its own DRM … they’re not really into a subscription offering.”

In addition to the music offerings, Ruckus also has a movie catalog as well as some television show episodes. There are currently around 4,000 titles in the movie and television catalog, and Brunton said that around 100 are viewable at a given time as these rotate in and out. The movie subscription also costs $19.95 per semester, but would be pro-rated based upon when an individual signed up for the service.

Brunton said that while she was not aware of students being sued for copyright-infringing file sharing activities at any schools that had a non-opt-in contract with Ruckus, it could still be happening. Currently, the identities of the three most recently sued RPI students have been subpoenaed by the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. These last three suits have brought the number of potentially sued RPI students up to 35 this year.

Next week’s Polytechnic will have a review of Ruckus—including its movie offerings—and updates on the status of the contract and possible launch date.