Downsides to downloading

For months, we've all been either crossing our fingers or shaking our fingers -- depending on the position we take on file-sharing. We've known from the beginning file-sharing was illegal, even if it was in the same category as speeding and jaywalking -- we all know it's wrong, we all do it and we all hate it when we actually get caught. \nBut now the Recording Industry of America Association is filing 89 lawsuits at 21 universities. The average "John Doe" defendant has 800 songs on his or her computer, meaning the student had, on average, 800 chances to realize his or her actions were illegal and stop. \nWe even had ample warning from the University. The Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs office sends e-mails telling students to delete illegal files (IDS, Oct. 17, 2003), and University Information Technology Services even advises students to disable the sharing option on their Peer to Peer programs. But still, some students persist, and now they're paying the price -- possibly to the tune of a $3,000 out-of-court settlement. \nNo one likes the lawsuits dangling over their heads, but the RIAA has the right to sue, just like the police have the right to pull over speeders. \nNor is this issue uniting among music fans. Students and professors alike have been naysaying file-sharing since the problems began.\n"If students really want to avoid problems," IU law professor Marshall Leaffer said in Friday's IDS, "they shouldn't do it. That's about as simple as you can make it."\nStudents also question the RIAA's tactics.\n"I would do the exact same thing if I were the RIAA," junior Sean Kellihan said in the same article. "They've got the right to do that. Artists have the right to copyright music, and people who don't respect the copyright should have to pay."\nIn the beginning, file-sharing was a great deal. It was free, fast and easy. But now, with threat of debt and a possible criminal charge, dropping a few hundred dollars on an iPod and a few songs or buying an actual CD seems like a much, much better idea. \nEssentially, what file sharers want is lots of music, in an electric format -- for free. What the RIAA wants is total compensation for each and every song that hits the ears of music fans. There has to be some middle ground -- something like what iPod offers -- that gives fans a choice of songs, in the format they want, for a reasonable price. But for now, until the RIAA stops filing lawsuits willy-nilly and serving its customers, file sharers will be downloading with trepidation. \nIt seems recording artists, record companies and professional organizations like the RIAA ought to realize there is potentially a lot of money to be made by anyone who is willing to offer what music fans want. \nBut until they get hip, we have to pursue other music options.