Despite risk of lawsuit, students download music

There are some activities that the majority of college students engage in regardless of the risk -- it seems that downloading music is and will continue to be one of them.

Although the Recording Industry Association of America announced last week that it has filed over 250 lawsuits -- and plans to file thousands more -- against individuals who have allegedly been sharing and distributing music online, there does not seem to be much of a decline in downloading on Penn's campus.

"Me stopping downloading isn't going to stop everybody else from downloading... so what's the point?" Wharton freshman Vimarth Shukla said.

Shukla, who said he understands the problem that file sharing poses for the music industry, downloads music using "Kazaa Lite" -- a version of the original peer-to-peer network -- that blocks the majority of pop-up advertisements.

However, he added, he does not do so "excessively."

"It's just easier to download music if you don't like the whole CD," Shukla said. He added, though, that he never keeps over 100 songs on his computer. Instead, he downloads the songs that he wants to hear, burns them on a CD and then deletes them.

Because of this system, Shukla is not worried about the RIAA lawsuits and said that he "will continue to download music."

College junior Sheena Prakash -- who said she has more than 1,200 songs downloaded on her computer -- also said she will continue to participate in peer-to-peer file sharing, despite the warnings.

Although the amount of files she currently has may put her at risk legally, she is not worried -- mainly because she is getting a new computer.

"Once I get a new computer, I won't have any songs on it so I will probably continue" to download music, she said. She added that it is "easier than buying a CD because you get just the song you want."

Another reason for Prakash's lack of concern is because, according to her, "there are a lot more people out there who have more songs and will be targets before me."

If Prakash were to be faced with the threat of litigation, she would consider accepting the RIAA's amnesty policy -- requiring her to delete all her illegally obtained music files and agree to stop downloading.

However, Prakash said she would not pursue the amnesty policy or give up her downloading unless there was some "pressure" on her.

Information technology advisers, such as College sophomore Nikola Kojucharov, are offering advice to students about how to avoid a lawsuit.

Kojucharov uses "Kazaa Lite" to download his music and suggested that others do the same. He explained that because Kazaa is constantly downloading advertisements off the Internet, it is less safe and makes it easier to trace the user.

In addition, Kojucharov recommended students turn off the file-sharing function, so that while a user can download files, his or her own files cannot be uploaded by others.

Kojucharov thinks that the recent lawsuits are in the back of everyone's minds, but that nobody is too concerned about it.

"My thinking is that if you try to catch everyone that downloads songs, it's going to be the whole campus," Kojucharov said, explaining why he isn't too worried about getting into trouble himself.

"We're all playing with fire," he said. "Hopefully it doesn't backfire on me."

While Penn students say they are not overly concerned, some students at institutions where lawsuits have already been filed are taking alternative approaches to downloading songs.

Jennifer Beckley, a senior at Michigan Technological University -- where student Joseph Nievelt in May settled a suit for thousands of dollars with the RIAA -- said that she doesn't download MP3s onto her computer.

Instead, Beckley uses the "Yahoo Music!" Web site, which allows users to listen to music files, but not to download and store them in their hard drives.

"It's free, and also it isn't illegal, because you're not actually downloading the music onto your computer," Beckley said of her approach.

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