Editor’s Note: the name Renae Hutcherson (marked with an asterisk) has been used to protect the identity of the source.
 An increasing number of students, including some at Mississippi State, are turning to illegal file sharing software to download music and movies for free, rather than purchasing them from legitimate providers.
Renae Hutcherson*, a junior at MSU, said most students are able to pirate music and movies regularly without regret.
“Somehow all these artists get rich anyway,” Hutcherson said. “When we look at their luxurious lives, we don’t feel like we’ve stolen anything from them. We actually feel like we’re supporting them because no matter how we get their music, that’s what makes us fans.”
A report commissioned by Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy estimated between $30 billion and $75 billion of digitally pirated products in 2008 and predicts an estimated increase of $80 billion to $240 billion of digitally pirated products by the year 2015.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act passed in 2008 requires universities and colleges to have a plan in place to combat piracy on campus.
Tom Ritter, security and compliance officer for MSU’s Information Technology Services, said students do not seem to understand how easily they can be found out.
“One of the first questions I ask people when we talk about this is ‘You get on our wireless network and you enter your net ID and your password; do you think you’re anonymous?'” Ritter said.
He said a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives people who own copyrights for music and movies the right to complain if someone shares it illegally. 
“For example, MSU is registered with the Library of Congress,” Ritter said. “We have an email address people can complain to, and we frequently receive complaints about people sharing music and movies inappropriately on our network. Under the DMCA, as long as MSU responds effectively and quickly, we can’t get sued.”
MSU and other colleges receive copyright notices from the Recording Industry Association of America to notify downloaders in advance that they are breaking the law and steeper consequences will follow if the actions continue.
If the student fails to adhere to the warning, Ritter said the RIAA will usually try to offer the opportunity to settle outside of court for about $2,000.
“Ninety-nine cents per song on iTunes is looking better and better,” he said.
Fines and legal consequences are even steeper for students caught file sharing, rather than just illegally downloading.
“What most people don’t understand about software like Bit Torrent or Limewire is that while you download, you’re sharing,” Ritter said. “So you find a torrent file on the web with a movie in it, and while you’re downloading it, perhaps thousands of other people across the Internet are downloading it from you at MSU. Then, when it comes time for them to actually sue you, they don’t look at you as a person who was just downloading; they look at you as a person who was sharing with others.”
Illegal downloading and file sharing also has negative effects on the music and entertainment industry.
Terminal Recording Studios in Ridgeland, Miss. has seen the results firsthand. The studio has produced original music for “O’ Brother Where Art Thou”, as well as for The Williams Brothers, Stevie Wonder, David Banner and other country and blues stars.
Kamel King, the entertainment attorney for Terminal Recording Studios, said the rise in pirating has strongly impacted every genre, as well as other aspects of the industry.
“Illegal downloading and file sharing have tremendously affected the entire entertainment industry as a whole,” King said. “It’s cost the industry a lot of jobs and positions. Let’s face it; you can be as creative of a person as you want, but you have to be able to provide for your family financially through your creativity.”
The effects of piracy are not just financial.  King said although the impact has been negative toward the artists who do not get what they deserve, the upside is that it has pushed some people out who need to be pushed out.
“It has also forced the entire music industry to go into a superfluous overhaul and redesigned the entire music business model as we know it,” he said. “It’s kind of an evolutionary phenomenon. The people who cannot evolve and transition with the new model are dying out and being forced out of the industry. The people who can adapt, understand the music industry and develop marketing and business strategies to take advantage of it are becoming the new front-runners of the industry.”