We've all read the news. The Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) has decided to sue kids (and their parents) for sharing music files on the Internet. Questions of ethics—and capitalism—obviously have a lot to do with this decision. But are lawsuits the answer?

I decided to ask some teens with musical ambitions about their take on this situation. These kids are in an interesting situation: for one, they have probably downloaded music themselves—no, I didn't incriminate them by asking—but, on the other hand, some of them hope to make their own livings as professional musicians. One recording industry argument against free music downloads is that it shortchanges the musicians themselves.

"I am in 2 chorus classes at my school. I think that it is utterly brainless for record companies to press charges against someone for sharing files," says Julia Nixon, a fifteen year-old Virginia high school student. "These record companies make multi-millions of dollars off of the stars and they act like we are going to make them go bankrupt if we download their music!"

But is it right to download music for free? "If I were a star or a record executive, I would allow all of my fans to download music because music helps people cope through the worst times of their lives," responds Nixon. "There should not be a price on what effect music has on people!"

Another teenager, Alyssa Carey from Illinois, tells me that she plans on pursuing music professionally, but not as a performer. "I believe the file-swapping services could do some good for musicians—someone who stumbles upon a lone file of some musician's work may like their work so much that they'll look around for more of this musician's work and possibly buy a CD...it was once said that a tape someone made from a Grateful Dead concert spawned more Deadheads than could fill the stadium!"

Carey also offers some advice that seems pretty sound to me: Perhaps if the musicians and record companies turned the file-sharing services to their advantage [by] using it for advertising—they might be successful without shutting the services down. I know that sometimes Kazaa will feature certain songs by lesser-known performers, and if users download the songs and like them they'll be more likely to see the artists in concert."

Adults Complicate Matters
Kids are obviously thinking about this issue a lot—see for yourself in any Internet music chat room. They are sorting through all of the ethics involved at the same time as confused adults. But make no mistake, the bottom line here is money. The best-intended ideas from kids may not matter much to the best-intended capitalist.

"The law is clear, and the message to those who are distributing substantial quantities of music online should be equally clear—this activity is illegal, you are not anonymous when you do it, and engaging in it can have real consequences," said RIAA president Cary Sherman, not mincing any words at a press conference in June 2003. "The more files you upload, the bigger target you are. And we intend to keep filing lawsuits until people get the message."

Sounds like a threat to me.

Organizations like The Electronic Frontier Foundation (with the slogan "File-sharing: It's Music to our Ears") are pretty angry about that threat. They advocate solutions like "voluntary collective licensing" and "compulsory licensing" to put an end to the lawsuits—both of which are pretty complicated. I'm not sure I understand them myself, so to learn more, dial them up for yourself.

Resource: Learn more about the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. [1]

What does make sense to me, though, is their push for concerned individuals to sign a petition bound for Congress to get at "a rational, legal means of resolving this crisis." It's one cry that might not fall on deaf ears (no pun intended), and it may stop more kids from getting sued.

What's a Parent to do?
Will these lawsuits cause parents who might not otherwise have been concerned about their kids' habits on the Internet to take a more active approach? If so, that's great.

But I have complicated feelings on the issue because I realize that the record industry is not suing kids so that parents will take better care of their kids. They are, in fact, suing kids so that they can make even more money—from kids.

I have to laugh, though, as I imagine hordes of parents rushing to look up Kazaa on Google—"How do you spell that, hon?"—and then trying to figure out how to delete incriminating downloads. Pushing the wrong key, and finally actually getting the latest Eminem track. Next step: angry moms all over the country tell their children, "No more Eminem CDs at all—even the censored ones!" And finally, the money that the RIAA so depends on from kids suddenly would dry up all together. It's only in my imagination, but it could happen, right?

Resource: The Media Awareness Network [2] contains resources for both parents and teachers who want to learn more about Internet issues, like music file-sharing.

When the lawsuits began rolling out in August 2003, I couldn't help but think of my own mom who, I think would be the first to admit, isn't exactly Internet-savvy. She never really understood what Napster ever was, let alone Kazaa. But being able to get my brother to find her an old Elvis or Beatles favorite in less than a minute probably never seemed like an illegal deal to her. In fact, after hearing "Blue Suede Shoes," she went out and bought an Elvis "greatest hits" CD. The record industry, of course, doesn't have a problem with that part of the equation.

What Julia and Alyssa have to say about downloading songs and the ethics involved makes sense to me. But music downloads may be just the beginning of a long campaign of technological guerilla warfare against control of popular entertainment. Just recently, a grown-up friend sent me a link to a Web site with the innocent question attached, "Want to listen to a movie while working?" "Oh no! What can of worms will this open up?" I thought, as I looked through titles like "Dude Where's My Car?," "Indiana Jones" and "Shrek"—all favorites of my teenage sister.

I can't help but wonder if, in a few months, children should expect to be sued by the movie industry. In the mean time, Mom, you best delete your "Blue Suede Shoes." They've been stepped on. (If you can't figure out how, give me a call!)

Rob Capriccioso is a former staff writer for Connect for Kids.