YES! I believe there are millions of teenagers who believe what professional looking sites say on their pages. Just like most Americans believe the Bull-****’ that their press writes about the interior political situation.

Everybody is led by the nose into territory we know nothing about. A couple of years ago EVERYONE was being pressured to take out loans, mortgages etc, with the World Governments happy to go along with the assumption that it was OK. ‘Things were good’. OH no they weren’t, but I presume you’re now saying that EVERYONE who has now LOST their homes because of government encouragement ‘Knew’ at the time they were doing it that they were committing financial suicide??

Get your act together (in your mind and in your respect for others naivety) The criminals are the site owners who promote the idea that it’s OK to download this stuff, not the person who has been ‘hoodwinked’.

This teenager should have been let off completely on the condition she does a small commercial ‘condemning’ the sharp practise that ’suckered’ her and millions of others just because they wanted to host ‘pay-per-view’ & ‘pay-per-action’ advertising which will have earned them probably Millions.

Pete.

As for me being part of a broken system … it’s a job I reluctantly took to pay bills when I realized there was zero opportunity for me to work in my chosen career after I moved to London. Honestly, I can’t stand working in IP. It sucks more than you can possibly imagine and most days I feel like throwing myself off a tall building, and until you’ve worked in IP, you cannot imagine it. Trust me on this. Almost no one chooses to work in IP – it chooses you. :(

Look at the problem through the eyes of a 16 year old – if you steal a car, or a loaf of bread, you can clearly understand how you have deprived somebody of something.

However music, like software, is physically immaterial so although the words “stealing music” make sense, the actuality of the act does not. How can you have “stolen” it if someone else also has a copy?

The problem is compounded by how music is presented in society – you can listen to it on the radio for freee (advertising revenue is immaterial to a 16 year old). The problem is exactly the same for torrent distribution of TV episodes – in the mind of a 16 year old how can it really be theft if it is broadcast on tv? You can watch it for free when it is broadcast and you can go to your neighbour’s house and watch it.

These are adult concepts beyond simply understanding “it is against the law” – especially if the law seems particularly stupid and at odds with the reality of listening to “free” radio and watching “free” tv.

The law needs to change. The music industry needs to try a new angle.

Just my $0.02

I agree with some of your statement, mostly that the girl knows what she’s doing, but $200/song is beyond punishment, it’s as ignorant as beating up an adult that bullied you in elementary school. Saying it’s “less severe” shows you’re (sic) part of the same broken system.

I believe Trent Reznor has shown one way to sell music online; perhaps his criticized method is not as lucrative as raping the public at $18/CD, but it does have the fortitude of honesty behind it.