Ruckus Music Service

NOTICE: The RUCKUS service went out of business on February 6, 2009, and is no longer available.

Berg Partners with Ruckus to Offer FREE Music Downloads to Students

Heidelberg University has partnered with Ruckus™ to offer its digital entertainment network to the Berg community. The partnership will provide students the opportunity to legally download more than 2.8 million music tracks, access Hollywood movies and television shows, create a personal profile and share downloaded tracks with other students.

Ruckus is offering free Music Subscriptions to both on- and off-campus students.

Other packages include:
Faculty and Staff Music Subscription: $5.99 per month for unlimited music downloads.
Movie Subscription: $15 per term. Movie subscriptions are only available to students downloading on the ResNet (campus) network.
Ruckus-To-Go: $20 per term for the ability to move Ruckus music to a compatible portable player.

A technical detail that distinguishes Ruckus from other subscription-based services is that a server is placed directly on the ResNet network. This keeps downloads on campus, fully leveraging the speed of the ResNet backbone. In other words, students connected to ResNet can download a music file in a few seconds and a full-length, DVD-quality movie in a matter of minutes. Those users with Off-Campus or Faculty and Staff music subscriptions download files from Ruckus headquarters, so download times are dependent on the speed of the user's Internet connection.
All Ruckus media files are protected by Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM). As a Ruckus subscriber, you hold a digital license for each file you download. The license allows you to play downloaded music on your PC for 30 days and movies for five days. When a license expires, you simply need to log into Ruckus to re-acquire it -- you don't need to download the content again. Licenses are automatically renewed each time you play a file provided you have an active Internet connection and a valid Ruckus subscription.
Last spring, at the request of the student body, Information Technology began researching legal music services for students as an alternative to peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. P2P programs like KaZaA, Limewire, Ares, etc. expose students who use them to a variety of hazards including copyright infringement and computer virus/malware infection. They are also capable of consuming large amounts of bandwidth, which, in turn, slows down the campus network and increases the cost to maintain.
The Ruckus service was most attractive because it's tailored to colleges and universities, could be implemented at no cost to the University and offers "opt-in" premium subscriptions.
The service is now available at more than 70 colleges and universities around the country.

To Log onto Ruckus and begin downloading:

Go to www.ruckus.com
Click on JOIN RUCKUS NOW tab.
Enter your Heidelberg University email address, first and last name, graduation year, and check I AM A STUDENT. For Faculty and Staff, please check the other box.
A message will appear notifying you that an email has been sent to your heidelberg.edu email account to complete registration.
Go to your email account - open the registration email from Ruckus and follow the steps to complete registration.
You will be directed back to Ruckus. Enter your Ruckus password when prompted as confirmation.
Congratulations! You have successfully registered on Ruckus.
Download the Ruckus Player.
Browse Ruckus music library to find, download, and listen to your favorite music!

If you have questions or would like to learn more about the Ruckus service, visit the Ruckus "frequently asked questions" web page. You can also visit the Ruckus customer help page to investigate technical problems.

Disclaimer: This information reflects the Ruckus service deployed at Heidelberg University as accurately and completely as possible. Future offerings will be updated on this page when available. Copyright © 2006 Heidelberg University and Ruckus Networks Last updated: 2/9/2009