Telecommunication junior Jason Shamberger says he downloads material from the Internet on a regular basis, such as movies, music and software.

But there's a group that wants to prevent college students from enjoying such freedoms.

Recently, there have been efforts to persuade officials at American colleges and universities to make students aware of the dangers of file-sharing, or downloading copyrighted materials from the Internet.

On Oct. 11, industry and government representatives met at the University of Texas at Austin to discuss the dangers of American universities that allow their students to file-share.

The group said universities could face lawsuits or new regulations based on their students' actions.

Prior to the meeting, a group of recording and motion picture associations sent letters to 2,300 presidents of American universities informing them of the risks universities take when allowing their students to file-share and suggestions on how to improve the situation.

One suggestion was to increase awareness of the risks of file-sharing among students. Another suggestion stated in the letter was to increase use of bandwidth management systems.

However, in early November, another letter written by the Electronic Privacy Information Center urged colleges not to monitor students' file-sharing activities, saying it violates students' privacy.

Starting this fall, the University of Michigan limited the amount of bandwidth available to students, and some areas of the university have been affected because of reduced inbound traffic over bandwidths. The change was not a response to the letter but a cost-cutting measure.

David Gift, vice provost for libraries, computing and technology at MSU, said the university is not at fault for students who file-share, and there are no grounds for lawsuits from groups outside the university. Gift said there are no plans to modify inbound or outbound traffic at MSU.

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it clear that it's the behavior of the person sharing the file. The university is simply passing files through the network and is no more at fault than any other network that files pass on," he said.

Michael Seadle, head of MSU's Digital & Multimedia Center, said there are plans to send copyright information to students, and there are free copyright classes available to those interested.

"We deal with a fair number of copyright questions every day," Seadle said, adding that he created a Web page with copyright information located at www.lib.msu.edu/seadle.

Shamberger said that he hopes nothing happens from the representatives' persuasion, but there are benefits if something does.

"I'd like to be able to do it," Shamberger said of file-sharing. "But I guess it would force me to be a good person."