Hey! Did you here of the one about the college that tried to convince its students that getting DRM-protected music files from Ruckus’ comparatively limited collection instead of using Ares to get whatever files they wanted?! Yeah, it’s actually happening.

Campuses are attempting to curb the spread of problem filesharing by offering an alternative: Ruckus. Ruckus, on its own merits, is a fantastic piece of technology. It does not, however, offer filesharing in any sense. You can download DRM-protected music files; you cannot share your music files. You cannot use anything but a relatively limited collection of music files that the site deigns to offer to you.

Filesharing is a well established and popular hobby amongst many. To try and encourage students to use an inferior alternative is move doomed to failure from the start. Filesharing is alive and well and, as the users would say, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

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