Dear Northern Star Editorial Board,

Your April 22, 2004, editorial titled “NIU needs better downloading option” appears to have been based, in part, on incorrect information about Ruckus Network.

Ruckus is much more than just a music service – it offers students computer-based, on-demand access to movies, TV shows, local entertainment and student-produced content, community features and 500,000 songs by major-label and independent-label artists.

Ruckus is the only digital entertainment service designed exclusively for college students and the only one that would allow NIU students to control and manage what gets featured and highlighted. But I’ll relegate my corrections to your editorial piece.

First, the article inaccurately stated, “Students can’t burn the music onto a compact disc or transfer it to a portable music player.”

In fact, as part of the Ruckus service, users will be able to download 500,000 tracks to listen to on their computers. When the system launches this fall, permanent downloads that can be burned to CD or transferred to compatible portable devices can be purchased at $0.99 per song or $9.99 per complete album. This is the same arrangement that students would have with iTunes, Napster 2.0, Rhapsody, etc., and is dictated as much by record labels as by individual music services.

Secondly, you mistakenly stated that Ruckus users will be able to listen to music on their computers “only if the computer is hooked up to the NIU network.”

Actually, all of the music downloaded by students will reside on their individual computers and will be playable whether they are online or not. All music downloaded from Ruckus is as mobile as any laptop or desktop computer.

Given these facts, the Star’s dismissal of the Ruckus pilot program as “a waste of time” and its apparent endorsement of Napster 2.0 as providing “more options for students” both are ill founded. The features you cited in each case are identical on Ruckus and Napster 2.0. Where Ruckus dominates all other digital media services is precisely in the area of providing “more options for students.”

Ruckus was founded by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has built its service exclusively for colleges and universities, based on direct feedback from thousands of students at dozens of U.S. campuses. The opportunity exists for NIU students to actively define Ruckus so that it reflects the unique entertainment interests and personality of NIU and its surrounding area. This means local music, concerts, parties, student film, campus radio and publications, reviews, etc.

If you’re living in Grant Towers this fall and the local “scene” doesn’t excite you, don’t forget that you’ll soon have 24/7 on-demand access to digital music and movies for free. Things could be worse.

Brad Williams

Ruckus Network

Boston, Mass.