It is pretty clear that illegally downloading music is a problem. Record companies are losing tons of money. I mean, $12.5 billion in a year is no small chunk of change (unless, of course, you are a weekly columnist for a college newspaper), and it surprised me that the dollar amount was so high.

“Why,” I asked myself, “are my peers stealing so much copyrighted material? Today’s music isn’t even that good.”

What really baffles me is the fact that people still find it surprising that file sharing and illegal downloading is so common. Let me paint a picture for you: A new album drops in stores, and you can choose to shop at the store with security guards at every aisle, cameras out the wazoo and those magic metal-detector machines at the doors that just seem to beep at random people. Or you can go to the store across the street that has none of those things and a cashier who is too busy playing on his iPhone to care about how much the merchandise is being loaded into an unmarked van out the back door. For the sake of the analogy, the van’s license plate says “TORRNTZ.”

Of course college students are going to steal music. We practically live off it. Regardless of the genre differences, music is an essential part of college, according to all of my friends’ Facebook interests.

And with the economic climate the way it is (cloudy with a chance of recession), it’s no wonder so many students turn to illegal activities. We’re one of the poorest factions in American society. What do you expect us to pay for music with? Term papers?

Actually, that’s not a horrible idea. Imagine how productive students would be if they actually had to generate quality essays to listen to music. I may be on to something here, unless Apple takes the initiative and makes it 20 times better.

The biggest problem I have with illegal downloading is the fact that its nay-sayers emphasize that the software used to download stolen music is 100 percent legal. These are likely the same people who walk into a dorm room, spot a bong, and say, “Well, there are plenty of legitimate ways to use that.”

True, but you and I both know that those ways aren’t being utilized.

What do these people expect Limewire to be used for besides sharing illegally-obtained files? All sarcasm aside, I cannot think of one realistic reason why a person would use this software to legally share files instead of other, less-virus-y means, such as e-mail.

So, what can we take away from this, as college students? Hopefully as much free music as possible. But do be careful. Even though no Grand Valley State University student has been sued yet for illegal downloading, it can only be a matter of time before some big record company attempts to make some lost money back in the form of a lawsuit.

Take piracy seriously, lest ye be made to walk the plank.

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