Now What? Rukus’ Demise Leaves a Gap in the Higher Ed Act
Rukus, the free music downloading service promoted by the music industry as the way to limit illegal downloading by college students, has folded. Rukus abruptly halted services on February 6. An annonymous employee told The Chronicle of Higher Education that the business model, a downloading site funded by ads, was no longer working. Music industry representatives complained that students contributed to Rukus’ end by choosing other free, and illegal, downloading services instead. College officials said the restrictions on Rukus music–it couldn’t be transfered to a portable device or burned to a CD–made the service unattractive and unusable for students. They said these seemed to be strictures from another era, before digital downloading became commonplace.
Oddly, now that Rukus is gone, college and university officials are in a bind. The Higher Education Act, renewed by Congress last year, requires institutions to offer an “alternative” to illegal downloading. The langauge doesn’t make clear whether simply pointing students to iTunes or Amazon.com would fulfill this requirement, or if colleges and universities must be more aggressive, offering music services for their students. When the law was written, music industry officials suggested institutions contract with Rukus to fulfill this requirement, but this is no longer an option.
What institutions should do–or must do– to comply will be ironed out in the coming months. The Department of Education is begining the rule-making process now. If you would like to help shape any of the language in the Higher Education Act, contact the Public Policy Advisory Committee.
