The Ruckus service provides Witt students with access to over 1.5 million songs and hundreds of videos. With Ruckus, students can download and share playlists of music and movies with their friends and classmates in a fast and user-friendly download environment designed exclusively for college students. Users can recommend favorite tracks, and look at other people's libraries. Witt students will be able to connect with friends and make new ones.
Music Subscription: FREE to all Witt students during the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters (2006-2007 academic year).
Faculty and Staff Music Subscription: $5.99 per month, paid on a semester basis, for unlimited music downloads.
Alumni Music Subscription: $7.99 per month, paid on a semester basis, for unlimited music downloads.
Movie Subscription: $15 per term (fall, summer, spring). Movie subscriptions are only available to students. Movies must be downloaded from an on-campus location.
Ruckus-To-Go: $20 per term for the ability to transfer downloaded content from a PC to a compatible mobile music device.
No. Music files you download are protected by digital rights management, so they're licensed to you for 30 days. A "Renew By" date in your music and movie libraries indicates when the license for each downloaded title will expire. If you are logged into Ruckus and play an expired song, the license will renew automatically. You can also manually renew the license by right-clicking the title and selecting "renew license." You can renew a track as many times as you like as long as you are a Ruckus subscriber. If you cancel Ruckus, you will no longer be able to renew your licenses.
Students who opt for the Ruckus-To-Go plan ($20/semester) may copy downloaded music to a compatible portable player.
Movie files you download are also protected by digital rights management and can be played on your PC for 5 days, after which time they remove themselves.
Ruckus offers online music purchases through Buy.com. You can buy individual tracks or entire CDs. Movies are not available for purchase via Ruckus, but are available through Buy.com.
Whenever you are given the option to download a music track or album you are also given the option to buy through Buy.com. If the track or album is available for purchase, a Buy.com icon will appear. By selecting that icon you will be taken directly to that track or album's page at Buy.com. A track purchased and downloaded through Buy.com can be burned to CD.
For $20/semester Ruckus-To-Go lets you move downloaded Ruckus music from your PC to a portable player. Once moved to the portable player, music will play for 30 days before it needs to be re-synched with your PC in order to renew the license. Please note that in order to utilize Ruckus-To-Go, you need a compatible, subscription-enabled, portable player. Check here for a current listing of supported players.
Ruckus-To-Go is available to any Witt student, staff, faculty member, or alumnus for $20/semester.
No. Downloaded music can be played on your PC for 30 days (movies can be played for 5 days), regardless of whether or not your PC is physically connected to the campus network. However, movies must be downloaded while on campus.
Any computer with a browser can log into Ruckus. However, only PCs running Windows Vista, XP or 2000 are able to play music and movies. The specific PC requirements are as follows:
Just go to www.ruckus.com and follow the online steps. Please note that you'll need to enter your Wittenberg e-mail address (e.g., jdoe@wittenberg.edu). A Ruckus password and further instructions will be returned to your Wittenberg e-mail address. Once you have logged in and verified your account, you can begin using the Ruckus service.
Note: Wittenberg strongly recommends that you select a new Ruckus password, different than your email password or WittenbergKey password, for use with this service.
No. Although you can play the movies off campus after they are downloaded, the download itself must happen while on campus.
Subscriptions are purchased directly from Ruckus (www.ruckus.com) via a secure, online credit card transaction.
Yes. So long as your computer is directly connected to WittConnectt and you are on campus, you may do so.
No. Movies are currently only available through subscription.
No. The Ruckus music and movie files utilize Microsoft DRM (Digital Rights Management System), you will not be able to play them on a Mac or Linux system. You may, however, log into Ruckus, maintain your Ruckus profile and browse others' profiles and playlists.
No. iPods utilize the Fairplay DRM (Digital Rights Management) which is not compatible with Ruckus music files nor with Microsoft's Digital Rights Management system.
The movie and TV content offered by Ruckus can be characterized as "college favorites and cult classics". In terms of currency, the movie titles are similar to what you might find on a premium movie channel.
Over 200 hours of Hollywood video and TV content are available to Ruckus movie subscribers. Titles are cycled in and out every week; usually five come in and five go out. A list of outgoing titles will be posted in the "Charts" on the movie page. Popular titles may be available longer than others.
Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV).
In an effort to prevent piracy of the copyrighted content distributed by its system, and in an effort to enforce subscription rules, Ruckus employs Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM). Ruckus content is encrypted with DRM making it playable only when it has a valid license, and only Ruckus users can acquire a valid license to play the content by logging into the Ruckus service. Licensed content can be played using any media player that supports DRM (Ruckus, Windows Media Player, WinAmp, DRM supported portable players, etc.). Once a music license has been acquired it will last 30 days before expiring and you must then re-acquire the license. A movie license will last five days before it needs to be renewed. Renewing a license does not mean you have to re-download the content.
Yes. Ruckus Network is dedicated to providing digital entertainment based on the interests, lifestyle and preferences of college students. Only colleges and universities can subscribe to Ruckus for their students - it is not available for purchase by the general public.
Ruckus has online support available to any Ruckus subscriber.
This document last reviewed August 16th, 2007