RUCKUS R.I.P.

Ruckus is dead.
fuck.
I haven't seen any reporting on its demise, but when I went to Ruckus.com it let me know that the service no longer exists. One of the first ad-supported services to allow unlimited free music downloads of DRM protected content, Ruckus partnered with dozens of Universities (like Bradley - my alma mater). We got the service my sophomore year. The plan then, Ruckus said, was to provide the service for free to college students while enrolled, and then keep them hooked when they graduate for a small fee. Well, I graduated and they never sent me a bill even though I used the service regularly until this week. Maybe if they weren't so fucking lazy it'd still be around.

Ruckus even placed servers on campus to allow for faster downloads.

The only catch was you couldn't put the music on any Mac products (ipod ... duh Ruckus). Users could pay a $9 monthly fee to burn CDs or put the music on devises like the Zune. I downloaded hundreds of albums on Ruckus. Some people I know :) used programs like tunebite to strip the songs of its DRM protection, turning the tracks into unprotected MP3s.

Ruckus, you will be sadly missed.