Issue date: 3/6/07 Section: News

College students are notoriously cheap. However, according the Recording Industry Association of America, that cheapness in downloading pirated music translates to theft.

Music piracy is against federal copyright law, and between 2004 and 2005, Texas A&M students were served 16 subpoenas, according to Computing and Information Services.

The Associated Press reported that the number of music piracy complaints issued to universities by the music industry has increased by thousands over the past year. Some students are even receiving complaints for offenses as small as sharing one mp3 file.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) compiled a list of the top 25 universities that received the most complaints this school year. Nearly 15,000 students at these 25 universities received complaints. The top five offenders are Ohio, Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina, according to the AP. A&M was not on the list.

RIAA President Cary Sherman told the AP that software tools are being developed that are more capable of tracing illegal file-sharing.

"We are taking advantage of that technology to make universities more aware of the problem on their campuses," Sherman said. "They need to be sending a message to their students about how to live a lawful life."

Federal law requires universities to take action to stop repeat offenders, or else the universities can be sued. While some schools take great measures to notify students who have received complaints, others, such as Purdue, rarely notify students who have been accused because of the trouble involved with tracking down the offenders, according to the AP.

Despite the risks, many students feel they simply cannot afford the music they want to listen to unless they obtain it illegally. One downloader, who wished to remain anonymous, said he loves music but can't buy all the songs he wants to listen to.

"I am concerned, but at the same time, everyone has something to be concerned about," the student said. "To me, this is the same as being concerned with anything against the law (that college students do)."

The student began downloading music from LimeWire, because he felt it was too expensive to buy the music, he said.

"I don't have access to the same budget that I did back in high school," the student said. "I download music from sources such as LimeWire because they are an easy source to access unlimited music for free. I really enjoy all types of music, and if I were to download music from each genre, prices would build up much too fast for my budget to handle."

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