What happens to a twelve year old girl who receives only a small allowance and, due to the wonders of the Internet, discovers she can obtain the one song she loves but cannot afford, by downloading it onto her computer? The recording industry of America slaps her parents with a lawsuit.

Of course, we already know that this twelve-year-old girl possessed a number of record files in her computer and, let let's be realistic; peer-to-peer file sharing has cost deserving artists hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. The recording industry's first wave of lawsuits, targeting everyone from pre-teens to people with more than ten years of Social Security funded retirement, was a clear message to the countless file sharers: Shape up or get shipped to court.

But let's hold the phone a moment... according to a post at the web-site http://socallawblog.com, dated August 27, 2003, "Net Radio Operators File Anti-Trust Lawsuit Against RIAA." This is just on of the seemingly hundreds of lawsuits aimed against the RIAA in order to break up what is apparently a giant trust. Let's look at a quick fact that any music lover will recognize.

A standard-issue, newly released CD will cost in the neighborhood of $18.99, depending on the artist label. Any wise man can see that this is a fixed, industry-wide price designed to eliminate a large amount of competition among labels.

The reason for the profit usage of P2P sharing programs suddenly becomes crystal clear: The recording industry milks people for money, and this wave of lawsuits is, as Adelphi Student Kenneth G. Franquero, a computer science major, puts it, "an effort to further rip off music-lovers everywhere."

So how have these lawsuits affected Adelphi Students? Apparently very little, as I have seen more than one person riding Kazaa's lawsuit-one good song on it is a shame. After all, if we like the CD so much, we'll buy it. Maybe that's a lesson the RIAA should learn.

Recently the music industry has reacted positively; prices for CD's are dropping. While many people feel it is too late for salvation, we must remember that the artists we cherish depend on royalties, or they will wind up working at Burger King. Paying a fair price for a CD is paying the artists we love for their hard work in bringing us music; but paying record execs extravagant prices is nearly impossible to justify... but then again, do we have a legal choice?