By Sarah Wojnicki

November 3, 2009

Piracy— no not the “Arg, I’m a pirate” kind, the “I download things illegally” kind— has become more and more popular. We’ve moved on from things like Napster and Kazaa simply because now we have to pay for them.

But the fines for illegal downloading are no joke. They can go up to $150,000 per item and offenders are subject to criminal prosecution and have their permanent record damaged.

This doesn’t stop secret, back alley sites from popping up though, providing us poor college students a place to access this free piracy highway. Good luck trying to download from those sites at school though.

“I used those sites a lot at home, but if you are living on campus, forget about it, the Internet speeds are too slow,” said one EC student.

According to a study conducted by IPSOS Public Affairs in 2005, only 32 percent of students are paying for software most of the time. That leaves 68 percent of students who are potentially illegally using commercial software. That number has only grown with some reports suggesting that 95 percent of music downloaded is done so illegally.

Pirating a song or two used to be the max, but now people have moved on to new releases of movies and TV shows.

Sites like Hulu have tried to combat this issue by providing many popular shows. However, they have commercials and can seem to take up to a week to upload the episode, causing people to go out and find it themselves. 

“As a musician I’m torn,” said sophomore music major Kim Schaefer on illegal downloading, “because on one hand you want [music] to be successful and for people to enjoy it, but on the other, you need to make a living.”

She suggested, “Make an attempt to support the artist,” by perhaps going to a concert or buying a t-shirt that promotes the artist or band.

But not everyone believes in supporting the artist or film.

“I actually do an extensive amount of illegal downloading,” one Elmhurst College student admitted, who also visited sites where you can illegally download video games.

Convenience is one of the most common reasons for downloading, but an EC student argues that, “When I buy a CD how do I know that all the songs on that CD are worth it?” In this economy, we want to get the most for our money.

But there are serious risks for this “convenience.” According to CNN, a woman this summer was fined $1.9 million for her illegal downloads. She was guilty for illegally downloading 24 songs, with a fine of $80,000 per song.

So should you do it? Though it can be hard to resist, you may want to factor in those risks before you download that new Miley Cyrus song. Otherwise college tuition isn’t the only thing you’ll be paying.