Ruckus a bum deal

Regarding "IUSA brings music downloading service" by Julie Mahomed (Oct. 3):\nAfter reading today's article on the Ruckus music service, I was confused on how the service actually worked, in a technical sense. After some brief research, I learned that the music downloaded does not belong to the listener but is in essence "on loan" for the duration of their subscription. Music cannot be burned to CD and can only be transferred to portable audio players that support Ruckus' format. As an avid Mac user, this means I can only enjoy music from Ruckus on my laptop. I cannot take it in my car, and I cannot bring it on my iPod to campus. It also means I must download a separate audio program than iTunes, which currently houses all 2,000 of my songs and also add-ons to make Ruckus work better on my Mac. Call me crazy, but I do not see a single advantage to this program at all. I can understand IUSA's goal and IU's campaign against illegal music downloading, but I find it hard to believe Ruckus comes close to fulfilling either groups' goals. In addition to leaving the Mac/iPod community out to dry, the service does little to nothing to affect illegal music sharing situation. In order to combat that, IU must find a service that is more convenient and practical than P2P services, similar to how iTunes revolutionized Internet music downloading several years back. Until a better option is presented, I will stick to buying music online and at Best Buy, where I can do whatever I please with it once I get it.