Illegally downloading music and movies will become a distant memory when Ball State University students gain access to Ruckus, a digital entertainment network. However, the service is not compatible with the popular iTunes program or iPods.
After a bidding war between Ruckus and Napster, the Student Government Association and University Computing Services chose Ruckus, SGA President Steve Geraci said.
Brad Vaughn, vice president of campus sales for Ruckus, said, "One of the main differences between Ruckus and Napster is that we're free for all college students who go to schools partnered with Ruckus."
Ruckus started in September 2003. Ball State will be the first university in Indiana to have to partner with the music server, which works with more than 30 universities nationwide.
According to its Web site, Ruckus provides customers with 1.5 million licensed songs from major and independent labels, more than 45 major studio movies rotated weekly and articles, charts and information about entertainment.
While the music is free to any student of a school partnered with Ruckus, the movies and television shows will cost students $15 for a semester. However, anything students upload to the server can be downloaded by any other student on Ruckus.
"The more students that are on Ruckus, the more exciting it is," Ruckus representative Marie Farrar said.
Nonstudents with a bsu.edu e-mail address can get Ruckus for $5.99 a month.
Students will have access to pre-made playlists that fit their moods, or they can create their own content and submit it to the site for others to download. Similar to Facebook.com, students can upload pictures, connect to others with the same interests and create groups, Farrar said.
Normally, installation of the Ruckus server would cost $10,000, but after negotiations, SGA agreed to publicize the service in exchange for free installation, Geraci said.
Geraci said he gave the contracts to Kay Bales, dean of division of student affairs, to send through Business Affairs.
"Ruckus wants this service to go this semester," Geraci said. "That's [SGA's] goal too, we're helping them accomplish that."
University Computing Services are in preliminary talks with the campus iTunes representative, Geraci said, but the service would not be the same as Ruckus.
Ruckus also provides a "Ruckus-To-Go" feature that allows students to download songs onto portable music devices, excluding iPods, for a cost of $20 per semester.
Loren Malm, assistant director of security, policy, systems and assessment at UCS, said he contacted Apple. He said he would try to set up a meeting to discuss options with the company.
"It would be nice if they have the same kind of service as Ruckus," Malm said.
Jackie Huang, a film production major at University of Southern California, which also has Ruckus, said she didn't know anyone at her school who actually used the program.
The problem with Ruckus, which the University of Sourthern California has had for about a year, is Mac users can't use the program, and many people on the campus have Macs.
"We would rather just use iTunes," she said. "When I was on-campus, using iTunes, I could pick up other people's music. We really don't need another program because we can share in iTunes."
David Aseltine, a political science major at Ohio Northern University, which also has Ruckus, said his friends liked the program a lot, even though it was not compatible with iPods and other MP3 players.
"At the same time, I mean a lot of people have found ways around it," he said. "Wherever there's a will, there's a way to get around stuff."
He said he had friends who did online searches and found converters, which they used to put the downloaded music on their iTunes.
While the music selection is pretty good, he said, the movie selection was limited.
"It's real quick," Aseltine said, "and it has most all the music you would want."
Geraci's "Team Us" included the idea of a campus music server on its platform in 2005.
"We're glad it came together before we left office." Geraci said. "It's something we can get excited about as we leave."
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