Sree's Thoughts on College Students in Trouble for Downloading Music
Thursday, April 24, 2003

Getting free music - which is what you can essentially do now, thanks to the file-sharing services like Kazaa and other successors to Napster - may soon come with a catch.

Music companies are going after consumers who are sharing vast collections of digital songs online. And since college students, with their faster connections and free time, are major downloaders and distributors, they are now major targets. We are seeing lawsuits, colleges cracking down and threats of crimininal prosecutions.

If you are a college student or the parent of one, be aware of these risks. That free song may not be worth it. In addition, viruses are being deliberately "injected" into these files, so that when you share them, your machine gets in trouble. After all you get what you pay for.

What can you do? Try new services like AOL Music, PressPlay.com and Listen.com, which allow you do get digital music at a lot cheaper price than CDs in stores.

And here are instructions on how to remove Kazaa and other file-sharing systems from your Windows computer.