By Talia AlbertsThe Daily Northwestern

Free, legal music downloads for all college students.

Though it sounds like a dream come true, Northwestern students have mixed reactions to a new music downloading program called Ruckus, which offers more than 2.1 million free songs.

Ruckus teamed up with both major and independent music labels for its project, which is supported entirely by advertising and can be accessed by anyone with a “.edu” e-mail address.

Chris Lawson, Ruckus’ director of corporate development, said the company is excited to provide a legal service for some of the most important music consumers: students.

“The idea came about over three years ago as a graduate student project,” Lawson said. “The idea was that college campuses are ground zero for piracy, so let’s come up with a solution.”

But there is a catch. In order to protect against piracy, songs cannot be stored on iPods. The songs can only play in Ruckus’ own music player, which is only compatible with Windows.

“We certainly want to (make Ruckus a Mac-friendly program),” Lawson said. “The Windows-based technology makes sure the songs aren’t pirated, but the new Macs run on Windows, so Ruckus does work.”

Lawson also mentioned that software to run Windows on older models of Macs is available for purchase.

Although Ruckus originally was limited to the 100 schools in partnership with Ruckus, the service recently has expanded to include almost all U.S. college students through the e-mail registration. The campuses in the partnership still enjoy certain benefits that students at other universities do not, such as faster downloads and access to free movies in addition to music.

Some students said they are skeptical about the new program. Alex Drake, a Weinberg freshman, said he thought students would be able to find ways to store the songs on iPods by creating other programs.

“It sounds cool but there’s not a huge incentive for me switch over from LimeWire,” Drake said. “It depends on availability and if you could find some of the more independent artists you would not find on iTunes.”

Wendy Woodward, director of technology support services for NU, wrote by e-mail that she did not see a need for this type of program on campus.

“We have looked at these types of services in the past,” Woodward wrote. “Students have told us in the past that they did not feel that implementing such a program was a priority, especially when they already have access to so many legal downloading services.”

Chuck Filipov, a Communication sophomore, said he might use the service but does not think the program would help students who are used to downloading music illegally.

“I still buy CDs,” Filipov said. “I would like to download songs to hear (them first) and play songs off my computer.”

Weinberg sophomore Latisha Brengman said that Ruckus sounds like a great program for students hooked on downloading music. She said that she would be more interested in the ability to view free movies online, though it might put places like Cat’s Corner out of business.

But NU does not offer movies because it is not one of Ruckus’ partners.

Adrienne Williams, a Weinberg junior, said that she stopped downloading music, but that a program like this would still appeal to her.

“I’m very portable with my iPod,” Williams said. “However it still sounds like something I’d be interested in because I listen to music in my room doing homework and can bring my laptop to places like (Norris).”

Reach Talia Alberts at [email protected].