Merit Partners with Ruckus
To Offer Free, Legal Media Downloading 
Students at Michigan Colleges and Universities Get Free Access 
to More Than 2.1 Million Licensed Songs and Videos 

Merit Network and Ruckus Network, Inc. have announced a partnership to provide legal downloadable music and video files to students at more than 50 Michigan colleges and universities. 
Ruckus provides students access to legal downloadable music and video files at more than 100 universities nationwide; the Merit partnership expands that list to include Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University Northern Michigan University, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan University
All current students can now use their .edu email address to register and download an unlimited amount of free, legal, and safe music from major and independent label artists. 
Scores of Michigan students have already registered for Ruckus based on word of mouth recommendations from friends who have the Ruckus service at their schools.

HERNDON, VA. and ANN ARBOR, MI. -- Jan. 12, 2007  Ruckus Network, Inc. has announced that through a partnership with Merit Network, Inc. it recently began providing a multimedia network that supplies free music downloads specifically for college students to Michigan colleges and universities. Merit Network, Inc. provides high speed Internet access to Michigans schools, libraries and higher education institutions. Throughout the year, undergraduate and graduate students will be able to access the Ruckus service anytime  on or off campus  to receive the free, unlimited and full-featured music service.
Members of the growing Ruckus community will receive access to the first college-only service that blends social networking features with a massive and continuously expanding library that is free, legal and safe. Ruckus has already proven successful at more than 100 colleges and universities across the country, including Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, Brown University, University of California-Berkeley, the University of Denver and Georgia Tech.
Through the Ruckus service, students can legally download and share music, create playlists, send personal media recommendations to friends and neighbors, browse classmates profiles and media libraries and meet new friends. Students can build their personal music libraries from Ruckus collection of more than 2.1 million high-fidelity, virus-free songs. Ruckus eliminates copyright infringement through its licensing agreements with all of the major international record labels, as well as thousands of independent labels and artists.
Merit Network selected Ruckus free on-campus music service offering based on student demand for the Ruckus service, the networks robust networking infrastructure, and commitment to supporting legal, digital media services through on-campus marketing. Students at these schools will experience very fast downloads, improved network bandwidth, lower campus network infrastructure costs and access to additional video content.
We are very excited to make our music service available to students in Michigan along with hundreds of schools across the country, said Mairin Brzica, Director of Campus Relations at Ruckus. Students at these schools have been emailing us for months requesting subscriptions, and we are happy to now provide a digital entertainment network and a safe and legal solution to file-sharing at no cost to students or to the school. 
In partnering with Ruckus, we are offering students another way to connect with their campus communities, as well as a safe, legal and free way for them to obtain and share digital media, said Don Welch, President and CEO of Merit. It is a partnership we are very excited about, and we think our higher education community and their students will be as well.
Students can begin using the service immediately by simply visiting www.Ruckus.com and signing up with their lssu email address. 

Notes From The Editor:
If your music does not play, it is probably an issue with Windows Media Player. Try opening one of the files directly in WMP and it will give you an error and links to whatever you need to do to fix it. 
Expect to have to restart your computer several times.
Dont expect to load these songs onto your iPod. A variety of MP3 players are supported, but this feature will run you $20 a semester. 
Dont expect to burn these songs to CD either. 
Unfortunately, the Ruckus software will only run on Windows. Sorry Mac and Linux Users. 


