This article appeared in the 2010/2011 Fall Southerner newsmagazine

iTunes carries prices like $.99 or sometimes $1.29 per song. To some people these prices seem too steep and illegal downloading, or pirating, seems to be the simpler, cheaper alternative.

However, life may be getting harder for pirates everywhere as the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) steps up in a number of legal battles to stamp out illegal downloading.

One recent example is the lawsuit filed by the RIAA against Limewire, one of the world’s largest file sharing websites, for copyright infringement. After a four year battle they gained a major victory when a U.S. judge ordered the immediate shutdown of the site on October 26th.

If you were to visit the Limewire website today you would get a darkened screen and a court notice which explains the injunction. This may be making it harder for pirates to get their music. But Limewire is not the only file sharing website out there.

The RIAA has taken steps to crack down on individuals who pirate as well by suing a number of people for copyright infringement. A Minnesota mother, Jamie Thomas-Rasset was sued for copyright infringement for downloading 24 songs from the file sharing site Kazaa. In the last of the three trials the jury found Thomas-Rasset liable to pay up to $2,250 per song, or $54,000.

That just seems pretty unfair” said South High 11th grader Rachel Hutt. “They should only be suing her for 24 dollars.”

Thomas-Rasset and her defense seemed to feel the same way too, going to court three separate times with the argument that the most Thomas-Rasset should have to pay is what she would have paid had she bought her songs legally from iTunes.

Another instance of this happening is Brianna LaHara, a twelve year old girl who was sued for downloading songs from the same website as Thomas-Rasset, Kazaa. LaHara was able to settle her suit for $2 per song, $2,000 total. According to CNN, said LaHara, “I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don’t want to hurt the artists I love.”

However some artists, like the band Radiohead, would not have been as hurt as others by pirating. In 2007 when they released their album, In Rainbows, the band made it available as a download from their website at a price of whatever the consumer saw fit.

According to a survey conducted by Record of the Day, of 3,000 about one third paid nothing for the album. However, according to a report by Warner Chappell the pre-release sales for In Rainbows was more profitable than the total sales from Hale to the Thief, Radiohead’s previous album.

While some may feel that the Record Industry makes enough money already without making these lawsuits, others feel like they have the right to sue the people who are stealing their product.

“[The Record Industry] should be able to sue whoever it wants.” Said Hutt, “But they should only charge as much as they would’ve gotten had that person paid for their songs the normal way.”

According to Fox News the RIAA president commented during the Thomas-Rasset case, “Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation, but when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action.”

Perhaps pirates everywhere will start being more careful in lieu of these recent lawsuits, but an anonymous South High student observed that even after hearing about the lawsuits he/she probably won’t stop pirating music and doesn’t think others will be dissuaded either.