Copyright Issues

In the age of Limewire and BitTorrents, copyright infringement has become a huge issue. Trillions of songs and other sources of entertainment have been illegally downloaded by people of all ages. The Recording Industry Association of America as well as other entertainment companies have begun targeting college students who have or still are illegally downloading. College students are targeted because of the easy access for prosecutors to catch students with university IP addresses. Here at Trinity, administrators have decided to warn students about the dangers and consequences of illegal downloads rather than restricting access to P2P downloads all together. Other universities have chosen to block websites such as limewire and restricting downloads to occur on their server. I believe that the choice Trinity has decided to make is the choice that all universities should take. Students should be able to make the decision for themselves to illegally download or not. I am evidence of someone who used to illegally download without thinking about the consequences until my friend was caught. My friend attends Arizona State University and was issued a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit and had to settle the case out of court for $5,000. I no longer illegally download music and use iTunes instead.