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The tales of woe are featured on front pages of newspapers everywhere -- the unemployed woman from Chicago, the Manhattan single mother, the 71-year-old grandfather in Texas, the Yale University photography professor.
All have at least one thing in common: They have been sued for song swapping by the Recording Industry Association of America. And the vast majority insist they did nothing wrong. Some said they assumed they were downloading music legitimately because they had paid a fee to file-sharing application providers.
"My mom paid $29.95 for Kazaa and assumed she was using a legitimate service," said Marilyn Rodell, whose mother is being sued. "How was she supposed to know the difference between Kazaa and something like Pressplay where you pay $9.95 a month?"
But the Recording Industry Association of America is adamant that all of those who have been subpoenaed knew that they were committing a crime.
"For a number of years, the recording industry has been educating the public (with) broadcast and print advertisements about the illegal activity that often occurs on peer-to-peer networks," said RIAA spokeswoman Amanda Collins. "In addition, virtually every individual against whom we filed a lawsuit received an instant message as part of our educational program to let people know directly that their activity is not anonymous on these networks and there are consequences to illegal file sharing."
In April, the RIAA began contacting users logged onto song-swapping services, with an instant message warning that they could be "easily" identified and would face "legal penalties" if they continued to trade music files.
"I say the message thing is bullshit. We never got any messages from these record people, instant or otherwise," said Keith Browning, who was recently informed by his Internet service provider that his wife's identity had been requested by the RIAA.
Others who received subpoenas also said they didn't -- or didn't recall -- receiving an instant message. And many insisted they went out of their way to sign up and pay for a downloading service that they believed was legal.
Those thoughts were echoed by Vonnie Bassett from Redwood City, California, who said she assumed Kazaa was "a valid business" and was unaware that "its customers are allowed to do something illegal."
According to the RIAA, the initial 261 lawsuits targeted users who made more than 1,000 songs available for others to download, which would seem to restrict the suits to more-dedicated file swappers.
But some of the subpoenaed claim they were unaware they were swapping songs with the world.
According to Marilyn Rodell, her mother played the songs she downloaded through Windows Media Player. She didn't realize those songs resided in a folder on her computer, a folder that was open to anyone who wanted to download a song from it through Kazaa.
"My mother has been painfully law-abiding all her life, and is beyond horrified that she became a criminal simply by subscribing to a service that appeared to promise her unlimited access to music, movies and books," Rodell said.
"Kazaa has a very pretty, very professional-looking Web page. I paid them a fee and assumed it was a legitimate way to buy music," said Karyn Columbine, a Manhattan resident who insists she was "shocked and scared" when she discovered that the fee she paid to Kazaa didn't cover legal music downloads.
The original version of Kazaa, as distributed by Sharman Networks, does not charge a fee for downloads of its software or network use. Avalon Online, under license from Sharman Networks, sells an ad-free version of Kazaa, called KazaaPlus, for $29.95.
In a statement, Sharman Networks noted that both authorized Kazaa products contain an end-user license agreement (a form of contract that users must accept before software installation can begin) that advises users of copyright issues.
"Sharman Networks recognizes that it is unlawful to share copyrighted material without the consent of the copyright holder. We vigorously discourage copyright infringement and, as the world's largest distributor of licensed content via the Internet, support positive education for users," Sharman Network's statement read in part.
The company said the RIAA could solve its problems by using "existing software and (setting up) business partnerships between the record labels and the providers of peer-to-peer software."
"Unless the copyright holder has licensed its works with the online service or network, the distribution of that work is illegal. Music fans can go on the industry's website for more information about the exciting services offering music online legally," the RIAA's Collins said.
Some subpoenaed parents claimed they had no idea their kids were downloading music onto the family computer.
Janet Bebell from Colorado told the Denver Post, "I am sure that a gray-haired, middle-aged woman going to court to defend herself from charges that she downloaded music by a band called Incubus is going to get a laugh."
Others still simply don't understand what they did wrong.
Vonnie Bassett said she printed out an article from The New York Times recently and doesn't see much of a difference between that and swapping songs.
"Is The New York Times going to sue me now because I didn't pay for that newspaper? It doesn't make sense to me," Basset said. "And I don't know where they come up with the $750 to $150,000 figure for each song. Wouldn't they just be out that CD price?"
Copyright-infringement law allows the RIAA to sue defendants for $750 to $150,000 per copyright song found on their computer systems.
The RIAA has pledged to continue suing swappers. Many dedicated downloaders said they had no intention of stopping swapping, but most planned to move from Kazaa to less-known file-trading programs.
Others said they planned to quit downloading songs, but also had no intentions of buying more CDs.
"I don't want to get sued, but I don't want to support an industry that wants to sue me either," said Robert Vitro, a Columbia University student. "I'll just go back to primitive methods, like borrowing CDs from my buddies and burning a copy or two."
