By The Editors

The Recording Industry Association of America, also known as the RIAA, has launched an assault on music piracy, a practice they contend costs the music industry an estimated $4.2 billion a year. They’re not wrong in their argument that free file sharing is a form of theft. The original Napster and other file-swapping servers like Kazaa and Morpheus enabled the free trade of copyrighted material without royalties to the respective artists.

College students have become a prime target for lawsuits from the RIAA, which has in turn led a number of schools to contract legitimate music sharing servers for their students.

Most of the lawsuits filed by the RIAA against students range between $3,000 and $4,000, but this is apparently not deterring students from downloading pirated music. Currently 405 students at 18 different universities are the subjects of downloading-related lawsuits.

The University should consider the approach to the music sharing issue that some of other schools are using-exactly 44 schools are paying for the Napster service alone. A number of services charge a $1 charge per downloaded song; however, monthly subscription fees at around $10 are also an option. The technology should include funding for a campus-wide subscription to Napster. Or, if necessary, make a minimal increase to that fee. Such a measure would receive overwhelming support from campus residents.