The Ruckus about filesharing
Students enjoy file-sharing for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is convenient, it is free, it is fun. So when someone in authority tells them that they should stop sharing files and start using a service like Ruckus instead, you can imagine the reaction: very little other than ridicule and a certain amount of laughter.
And we think that the colleges and Universities that are trying to encourage this change knew that from the start. It is clearly the RIAA’s whining and moaning that has prompted this attempt at change, not any inner concern from the institutions.
But file-sharing is the sharing of files, not the downloading of DRM-protected music. Ruckus is not file-sharing in any way, and the attempt to bill it as such is misleading.
If file-sharing really is a problem – as the RIAA claims it is – then it needs to be tackled in a completely different way.