Ruckus Network, a provider of legal campus media download services, announced on Thursday an agreement with Merit Network, which provides broadband access in Michigan colleges, to offer the Ruckus service for free to Michigan college students. Virginia-based Ruckus provides its multimedia download service, which features a library of more than 2.1 million songs and videos, at more than 100 colleges and universities — including Princeton, Brown and UC Berkeley.

Any student with a university e-mail account - one that ends with .edu - can now login to the service to access free music on a subscription basis. The service, which has just more than 2.1 million tracks, was previously offered via university host servers for a fee. Those wishing to transfer music to portable devices will have to pay $5 a month or $20 a semester. Additionally, the movie service will not be available to students unless their university is a Ruckus affiliate.