The crackdown on illegal downloading of music seems to be in full swing, and college students better beware.

No longer is the RIAA just targeting the sites and programs that allow people to share music, now they are going after the everyday student who sits at their computer and downloads a few songs a day. It is a scary thought, opening your mailbox and seeing a letter from the RIAA nestled comfortably between a card from home and yet another bill from the school, and it very well could be a reality.

I had the chance to sit down with Sean Sullivan, a freshman finance major here at NIU. Sean is pretty much your typical student: He goes to class, worries about tests, goes to the gym and, oh yeah, he needs to find $3,000 fast.

Sean told me he was first given a letter from NIU that informed him that his Internet had been temporarily shut down for copyright infringement. He was caught using Limewire, a popular P2P (Peer to Peer) program. After allowing ResTech to remove the illegal items to regain his access to the Internet, he made sure not to have any P2P programs on his computer again.

Unfortunately, the story does not stop there because two months later Sean received a letter from the RIAA informing him of the impending lawsuit he was facing. According to the letter, if Sean is found guilty, the minimum fine for each song is $750. The only way around this lawsuit is to settle with the RIAA out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.

After contacting the RIAA, Sean was told the settlement would be $3,000. This seems to be standard for everyone who is caught by the RIAA, regardless of how many songs are being shared. Many lawyers are taking issue with the blanket settlement offer, which seems to be a completely legitimate problem considering a person with one song can receive the same penalty as a person with 400,000 songs.

The reason it seems the RIAA is using this blanket settlement is because when you have a P2P program open, not only do you have access to all your music files, but so does everyone else using this program at the same time. To some it is the equivalent of stealing a CD and copying it for anyone who wants a copy. I tend to agree with the RIAA here, because it really is hard to compare stealing a CD with uploading music to hundreds of thousands of people.

I asked Sean whether or not he thought it was fair for the RIAA to target college students, which they seem to be doing. He told me he thinks it is ridiculous that these major record companies feel the need to sue struggling college students.

I have a slightly different view on the matter, however. The record companies aren’t targeting struggling college students, they are targeting the demographic which clearly illegally downloads music the most. It is hard to blame the RIAA for going after students because, really, who else do they have to go after? Not too many people above the age of 40 know how to download music, let alone actually do it.

I have a feeling many students agree with Sean and not me, but the bottom line is illegally downloading music is, in fact, illegal (go figure), and you run a risk when doing it.

Sean has something he wanted the students at NIU to know.

“Take advantage of Ruckus and, at the very least, make sure you are not sharing because that is what’s illegal, not downloading. Just don’t do it. It is really not worth getting caught and paying $3,000.”