College students are constantly searching for cheap sources of entertainment. With the shutdown of Ruckus, there are two options to obtain and keep video games, television shows, movies and music: pay full price, either online or in stores, or download them illegally.

It’s no secret that college students are short on funds, especially for luxuries such as entertainment. Downloading copyrighted material should be legal because it would give poor college students the opportunity to enjoy the culture that our country is built upon. A cheaper alternative, at least, such as Ruckus, needs to be available so that all of society can enjoy such entertainment.

“I think that people are always going to download music illegally because who wants to pay $10 for a CD? Downloading shouldn’t necessarily be legal, but they need to come up with an easier, cheaper way of doing things,” said sophomore marketing major Jonathan Sackett.

Because of the potential consequences, it leaves us in a rut. How are we to obtain the entertainment we seek when we are punished for getting it the only logical way we know how?

NIU isn’t the only place implementing punishment for illegal downloading. We hear on an almost daily basis about lawsuits against people who are accused of downloading.

That is why NIU acts as the go-between, to try and protect us from such harsh punishments. Others, however, are not so lucky.

The founders of The Pirate Bay, a popular torrenting Web site, are on trial right now for allowing and promoting the distribution of copyrighted materials. The files hosted on the Web site can be downloaded in both legal and illegal ways. The trial is one of the most influential trials to date on illegal downloading. This trial is being called a “spectrial,” or a spectacle of a trial. The defendants on trial are being used as an example to the world of illegal downloading.

People who download copyrighted material, or “pirates,” all over the world are in an uproar about the accusations against the defendants. At Filesharer.org, pirates are encouraged to post a photograph of themselves under a banner that says “This is what a criminal looks like.” The home page claims that it is not the defendants, but all of the pirates in the world who have committed the actual illegal file sharing, and that this is “another attempt by the movie and music industries to stop technological innovation and development by force.”

This is just another example of how unfair the consequences are. The men on trial didn’t condone downloading illegally; the users on the Web site made that decision. A better, easier solution is needed to this problem that isn’t going anywhere.

Freshman finance major Christ Pantel agrees with this sentiment. “The four guys from The Pirate Bay have no control over who uploads things to their Web site because it’s open to the public. I don’t believe they should be prosecuted for other people’s actions,” Pantel said. “Why should someone in charge of a Web site be held responsible for millions of people?”

File sharing has been the center of an ongoing debate since it grew in popularity along with the Internet. Sharing music, movies and culture itself shouldn’t be deemed an illegal activity because these are the things that make up the character of our society. The solution may be to make it legal, or perhaps they need to develop another program to take the place of Ruckus. People are still stealing music, and instead of making money, the music industry is pouring money into punishing pirates. It’s obvious the current system isn’t working, so let’s put a positive effort into a compromise instead of trying to find ways to punish those who just want a little entertainment in their lives.