The recent spate of legal threats from the music industry against the UW campus community apparently has convinced few students to change their file swapping habit, but they’re also using a slew of other tools to find new music.
A stroll down State Street is all one needs to see the pervasiveness of the digital music culture: white wires disappear into students’ ears, an Apple iPod loaded with hundreds, even thousands, of songs on the other end — some tracks likely acquired illegally.
The ease with which music is copied and passed around has sparked a renewed legal campaign from the Recording Industry Association of America, the mouthpiece for the major record labels. The trade group has said that certain file traders at UW-Madison (16 have been targeted here) and other UW System schools have been identified by their Internet addresses, and it plans to pursue legal action against them.
Yet many believe that the music industry has already lost the battle, as the threat of lawsuits has done little to faze music-loving students or slow the pace of illegal file trading. Still, while it appears attitudes haven’t changed much since the crackdown began several years ago, students are using a diverse array of tools to seek out new music.
Related Posts
- Free, Legal and Ignored
- Schools still trying to catch up with technology
- “iPod Jon” cracks iPod and iTunes
- Students spurn free music downloads
- Stealing music
Loading ...
