By By Elizabeth Pierdominici
The University closed a deal last month with Ruckus, a digital entertainment service offering college campuses a wide range of digital media.
Network access includes over 1.2 million licensed music tracks from major and independent labels, major motion pictures, cult classics and independent films.
Access to Ruckus is legal and safe, but not free.
However, students on a budget may still be able to afford the fee of $14.95 for access to music, $19.95 for access to movies or $29.95 for a combination of both per semester.
Payments can be made by credit card or through Dutch Debit accounts.
“The University has been trying to find a way to offer a legal and inexpensive alternative to music and movie downloading,” Laurie Harvey, director of Student Computing Services and the Help Desk, said. “The University gains no financial benefit through Ruckus whatsoever, because students subscribe directly to the Ruckus network.”
In the search for a legal downloading service, the Student Computing Advisory Group, a committee of students that discusses and plans the future of technology on campus, enrolled in a 30-day trial to explore the Ruckus network.
“Out of the other service options, Ruckus turned out to be the best deal,” Harvey said.
The response was in favor of Ruckus and the University green-lighted the digital media network in time for the beginning of the fall semester.
“The key factor that sets Ruckus apart from other downloading services is the capability to connect peer-to-peer and share media files,” Josh Weiner, director of communications at Ruckus said. “Ruckus offers over a million songs and movies that are guaranteed to be virus free and allows students across campus to share movies and music while meeting other students.”
Ruckus launched its digital campus community in October 2004 and has reached over 20 college campuses thus far.
The Ruckus network teamed up with AOL Instant Messenger service to further enhance its community service.
Although Meaghan Monahan, a freshman at the University, said she has not tried Ruckus yet, she thinks the price is reasonable.
She added that she will consider trying the service, but sees other services as being more successful.
“I still think that other programs like Napster, iTunes, Facebook.com and Myspace.com will be more popular among college students,” Monahan added.
Monica Johnson, a junior TV/Video and business major, also had a problem with Ruckus.
“I did not find out that Ruckus music is not compatible with iTunes until after I already subscribed,” Johnson said. “Since a lot of students use iTunes, Ruckus would benefit by offering that.”
Johnson, however, found the downloading service and navigation of the Web site to be very simple.