Ruckus, the free Internet music service subscribed to by the University, abruptly shut down Friday.
The company has yet to release a statement about the cessation of services beyond a terse message on its Web site: "Unfortunately the Ruckus service will no longer be provided. Thanks."
The University began offering students free access to Ruckus in September 2006 as a legal alternative to peer-to-peer downloading sites. The service allowed students to download 1.5 million music tracks for free and thousands of movies for a small fee, according to a University statement at the time.
But the software only worked on Windows, and restrictive licences prevented the songs from being transferred to iPods or copied onto compact discs, limiting its popularity.
"Unless a service is going to be usable on your iPod, most people didn't want to use it," said George Loftus, executive director of the Ocean State Higher Education, Economic Development and Administrative Network, a nonprofit organization that provided the University with access to a Ruckus server.
By pooling together thousands of subscribers from universities across Rhode Island, OSHEAN was able to surpass Ruckus's 7,000-subscriber minimum and receive a dedicated server without paying the fee Ruckus charges for smaller subscriber networks.
The server is still operational and OSHEAN has not received any instructions from Ruckus about the server or its repossession, Loftus said. OSHEAN staff members have placed phone calls and sent e-mails to their Ruckus representative but have yet to receive a reply, according to an e-mail sent from OSHEAN to the University.
"There's no fee," Loftus said. "I think that's part of the reason they didn't feel compelled to contact us."
Songs downloaded from Ruckus came with a 30-day license and will continue to play until that license expires, Loftus said, but the licenses can no longer be renewed.
Loftus said OSHEAN will look for alternative services to offer Rhode Island schools, but Ruckus was the only music downloading service that did not charge a fee.
"The whole marketplace is very topsy-turvy right now," Loftus said. "We have yet to find a fee-based subscription service that students feel is worth paying for."
Students interviewed by The Herald seemed largely unaware that Ruckus had shut down.
"I was going to download it and I never did," said Lauren Davis '09, who said she listens to most of her music through other students' iTunes. "I'm not tech-savvy."
David Schwartz '09 said he'd heard about Ruckus, but never downloaded it. He used to download music from shareware sites and peer-to-peer networks but stopped after he filled up his computer's hard drive. He said he sees little appeal in limited-access subscription services like Ruckus.
"I can listen to (music) anytime I want on YouTube or get it from a friend," he said.
