In August of 2000, my workplace got relatively high speed access to the Internet. Napster was just beginning to hit critical mass. Being a music junkie, I began to feed my habit. In the last three years, I've accumulated about 2,800 mp3 files from children's songs, comedy clips and country to the latest singles the new new artists. About 10 gigs of music, which I use on my computer as a personal jukebox.

I don't share all of this music on Kazaa. It's separate from the computer I download music with. The only music I actually share is my own. Mp3 clips of a band I played with when I was 19. Not too many people want to download this stuff. When the band I'm currently in has recordings we feel happy about sharing, I'll put them up on the network as well.

Maybe I should amend that. I'll make them available if there is still a file sharing service to work with. The RIAA, which is one of the organizations that collects fees for use of copyrighted music, has changed tactics in their crusade to rid the world of file sharing. Instead of trying to sue to the companies that make the file-sharing software, they're suing the people on the other end of the pipe. Consumers like you and me.

Earlier this year, the RIAA sued four college students for setting up Napster-like services on their local college Internet networks. At $150,000 a song, the suits ended up being for about $900 million in total. The kids settled for between $12,000 and $18,000 a piece. In other words, it's not really about the money. It's about making an example. It's about scaring people who listen to music to stop sharing files.

At the same time, actual bootleg copies of hit albums (physical CDs and liner notes) is a $4.6 billion black market industry, according to some estimates. The record companies and the RIAA, however, are much more concerned with the free file sharing, blaming this practice with the huge decline in CD sales over the last few years.

The record companies also complain about getting music played on commercial radio and videos on MTV. With the majority of radio stations owned either by Clear Channel or Viacom's Infinity networks, the play lists have been consolidated. There is very little regional difference between what is played on The Edge in Ohio and The Edge in Albuquerque. Because of this, the record companies are working on new ways to get new music out to the masses.

Increasingly, placing music in commercials and TV shows is the new way to break music. Usually a fee is paid for this kind of thing. However, in the name of synergy and cross-promotion, the new trend is to give the music away for free. Thermasilk, a shampoo and hair care brand, paid for the radio and online promotion of a 12-city Michelle Branch tour. Thermasilk gets to use her music for free in whatever they want. In response to giving the music away, one record exec said, "There's a balance between preserving the value of copyright and taking into consideration the promotional opportunities to help break an act."

Huh. In other words, if you want to sell something with an act's music, you can have it for free. If you're a consumer who just wants to listen to the music, don't even think about finding that track for free on Kazaa. Again, the record companies have blinked on realizing the promotional abilities of file-sharing.

Congressmen in DC are toying with the idea of instant punishment for file-sharers. The remote destruction of computers hooked up to file-sharing networks. Y'know, forget due process. Forget about fair use. The customer is the enemy.

The interesting thing is record companies knew their sales would begin to decline now. Almost 20 years since the mass introduction of CDs into the marketplace, all those old albums people rebought on CD (because their vinyl was scratched beyond belief and CDs work "forever") have been replaced. Catalog sales have plummeted. The idea a few years ago was to try and find a new medium to replace the CD, so everyone would feel like they have to replace their old CDs. What has replaced the CD, in a way, are mp3s. But since the record companies are largely out of the loop of mp3 distribution, they aren't reaping the rewards of the new medium.

Instead, they are just attacking the medium they can't control.

Matt Worley isn't in a band to make money. He's in a band to make music.