- What is Ruckus?
- What is Ruckus-To-Go?
- How do I purchase a faculty and staff music subscription, movie subscription, or Ruckus-To-Go subscription?
- Can I purchase music and movies through Ruckus?
- How many movies does Ruckus have available?
- What kinds of movies and TV shows does Ruckus offer? How current are the movies?
- Can I pay for movies a la carte rather than through the $15/term subscription?
- I want to continue my Ruckus subscription for the summer. When do the terms begin and end?
- How fast are the downloads?
- Must I be connected to the campus network to play downloaded music and movies?
- Can I download Ruckus movies from off campus?
- Do I own the music and movies I download?
- Can I download Ruckus movies or music to my laptop in the library (or another academic building)?
- What's the file format of the media I download from Ruckus?
- What are the computer requirements?
- I'm a Mac (or Linux) user. Can I use Ruckus?
- Will Ruckus-To-Go work with my iPod?
- If I use Ruckus to download a lot of music and movies, will I have problems under the university’s Bandwidth Utilization Guidelines?
- How is Ruckus legal?
- Is Ruckus just for colleges and universities?
- Where can I get help if I encounter any problems with the Ruckus service?
1. What is Ruckus?
The Ruckus service provides Rutgers students with unlimited access to over 1.6 million songs and hundreds of videos. With Ruckus, students can download and share music and movies with their friends and classmates in a fast and user-friendly environment designed exclusively for college students. It's sort of a combination of Napster™, Facebook©, and an online video store.
LISTEN to a growing list of over 1.6 million music tracks. Sample all the music you want, and make your own unique playlists.
SHARE all your music with friends. It's a great way to learn about new music and artists. Recommend your favorite tracks, and see everything in your friends' libraries.
CONNECT with friends and discover new ones. Browse Rutgers profiles and invite people to be your "friend" on Ruckus.
WATCH major studio movies and TV shows with new titles rotated in regularly. Watch them anywhere and with anyone. (Fee applies)
2. What is Ruckus-To-Go?
For $20/term 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.
3. How do I purchase a faculty and staff music subscription, movie subscription, or Ruckus-To-Go subscription?
Subscriptions are purchased directly from Ruckus (www.ruckus.com) via a secure, online credit card transaction.
4. Can I purchase music and movies through Ruckus?
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.
5. How many movies does Ruckus have available?
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.
6. What kinds of movies and TV shows does Ruckus offer? How current are the movies?
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.
7. Can I pay for movies à la carte rather than through the $15/term subscription?
No, movies are currently only available through subscription.
8. I want to continue my Ruckus subscription for the summer. When do the terms begin and end?
For purposes of Ruckus subscriptions,
- Fall term covers August through December.
- Winter and spring terms cover January through May.
- Summer term includes June and July.
Rutgers student subscribers to the Ruckus service who are enrolled for the upcoming fall term may continue to use the Ruckus music service for free during the summer. However, for purposes of the for-pay Ruckus services (Ruckus-To-Go and Ruckus video subscriptions), the summer will count as a separate term requiring a separate payment.
9. How fast are the downloads?
Because Ruckus has placed a server directly on the Rutgers network, on-campus students will experience quick downloads of their favorite songs.
Off-campus users will download music over the Internet from Ruckus headquarters, so download times are dependent on the speed of the Internet connection and the volume of traffic on the Internet.
10. Must I be connected to the campus network to play downloaded music and movies?
No. Downloaded music can be played on your PC for 30 days (movies can be played for five days), regardless of whether or not your PC is physically connected to the Rutgers campus network.
11. Can I download Ruckus movies from off campus?
No, you must be connected to the Rutgers campus network to use the premium movie service.
12. Do I own the music and movies I download?
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/term) 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 five days, after which time they remove themselves.
13. Can I download Ruckus movies or music to my laptop in the library (or another academic building)?
Yes. As long as your computer is directly connected to the Rutgers campus network.
14. What's the file format of the media I download from Ruckus?
It is Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV).
15. What are the computer requirements?
Any computer with a browser can log into Ruckus. However, only PCs running Windows XP or 2000 are able to play music and movies. The specific PC requirements are as follows:
- A computer running Microsoft Windows XP SP1+ or Windows 2000 (Player will not work on a Linux or Macintosh computer.)
- 800 MHz or faster CPU
- 256 MB or greater RAM
- Windows Media Player 10 (WMP 9 for Windows 2000)
- Macromedia Flash Player 6.0 or higher
- QuickTime 6.5 or higher for Ruckus TV
- 10 MB free hard disk space for Ruckus Player
- 4 MB free hard disk space per song and 700 MB per movie
- Windows Internet Explorer 6 (medium security setting, JavaScript enabled, and cookies allowed)
16. I'm a Mac (or Linux) user. Can I use Ruckus?
Ruckus has partnered with eMusic.com to provide Macintosh and Linux users an alternative service. For a discounted membership ($10 per term) Rutgers students can download up to 25 songs each month through eMusic.com.
eMusic is a digital music service separate from Ruckus. eMusic offers mostly music from independent labels and has a limit of 15 downloads per month. However, the tracks are not subscription tracks like Ruckus. A track downloaded from eMusic is in MP3 format and can be burned an unlimited number of times, played on Mac, Linux, or Windows computers, and can be transferred to any MP3 player (including the iPod).
NOTE: The eMusic downloader program is available for Mac and Windows. Once the songs are downloaded, they can be moved to the operating system of your choice for listening.
17. Will Ruckus-To-Go work with my iPod?
No. iPods utilize the Fairplay DRM (Digital Rights Management) which is not compatible with Ruckus music files or with Microsoft's Digital Rights Management system.
18. If I use Ruckus to download a lot of music and movies, will I have problems under the university’s Bandwidth Utilization Guidelines?
No. The network traffic generated by downloading music, movies, and TV shows from Ruckus does not count against the bandwidth limits assigned to on-campus computers, such as those on the ResNet Network.
19. How is Ruckus legal?
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 redownload the content.
20. Is Ruckus just for colleges and universities?
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.
21. Where can I get help if I encounter any problems with the Ruckus service?
Go to ruckus.custhelp.com for assistance in addressing issues arising during the subscription process or anytime while using Ruckus's services.
