Sebastien Angel | Don't complain about a free lunch

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch," opines Manuel, a character in Robert Heinlein's science fiction classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Since the release of that book in the 1960s, the maxim has become inextricably interwoven with economics.

Each year, legions of Penn students have that cliche drilled into their heads when they take Econ 1. Why, then, are so many of them quick to turn down a free lunch?

I'm referring to the Ruckus music service, which made its debut at Penn last weekend. The Undergraduate Assembly recently signed a contract with Ruckus Network as the culmination of a two-year initiative to bring a music-downloading service to Penn. On Friday, Penn officially kicked off the partnership with a statement on its Web site.

News of the agreement first came out in late March, to a decidedly mixed reaction.

The shortcomings of Ruckus aren't hard to see. It isn't compatible with Apple computers, nor is it compatible with iPods. If you want to transfer your music to a portable music player, you pay a fee. If you want to download movies, you pay a fee. If you want your music to continue to work during the summer, you pay a fee. And if you want access to it after you graduate, you pay a fee for that, too.

Realistically, if you own a Mac or don't walk around with your computer shackled to your back, it's not really much of an improvement. That's a fact that this newspaper was quick to point out in March, and one that even the UA will concede.

"It sucks that it can't be used on Macs," UA Treasurer Sunny Patel wrote in an e-mail. "But there is absolutely nothing we can do. Apple does not make its computers compatible with these services and refuses to do so."

UA Vice Chairman of External Affairs Jason Karsh added that the situation is "frustrating." But Karsh, a Mac user, reiterated Patel's claim that it was completely beyond the UA's control.

But that doesn't appear to be exactly right. David Kapman, the CEO of eMusic.com Inc. and an Engineering alumnus, claimed that he tried to offer his Mac-compatible service to Penn and the UA. However, he said that "scores of phone calls and e-mails" went ignored.

Patel said that the UA never heard from Kapman at all during the selection process, but that it did consider eMusic. "When I sampled eMusic, I found that they carry very few mainstream bands and songs," Patel noted.

How much better a selection is worth sacrificing in exchange for Mac and iPod compatibility? Patel acknowledges that it's a subjective balance. "I am sure there are lots of people that would enjoy their selection of music," he said. "But the majority of popular music is not available on eMusic, whereas it is available on Ruckus."

I buy that explanation, and it's flown at the 60 or 70 colleges and universities that have reached similar agreements with Ruckus. Contrast that with eMusic: Pakman, despite repeated questioning, couldn't name a single college or university with which eMusic has such an agreement.

And Manuel, Milton Friedman and I have another reason not to complain about Ruckus: it's a free lunch.

Ruckus comes gratuit to the student body. And it's not "free" as in "your tuition bill took care of the costs already." It really is free: Ruckus' advertising and paid extras pay for it completely. The UA's budget, our student fees and the University's coffers remain untouched as students gain free, legal access to more than 1.5 million songs.

So for all its faults, the worst you can say about Ruckus is that it doesn't help much. It may be restrictive, it may be pointless, and it may not even be the best option. But the cost to us, simply put, is zero.

As any economist will tell you, you're not likely to find a better deal than that.

Sebastien Angel is a College sophomore from Worcester, Mass. His e-mail address is angel@dailypennsylvanian.com. Overnight Celebrity appears on Wednesdays.

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