While file-sharing on MSU's network is widely practiced, that does not make it legal. If MSU is punished by movie and record executives for students' behavior, those students who continue abusing the university's high-speed Internet connection deserve punishment.

MSU students are being affected by increased efforts among music and movie industry executives to track down college students with shared files on their computers. Downloading copyrighted files on the university network is in violation of MSU's acceptable use policy. If students on the network are caught by outside sources, MSU will be punished, but executives are saying students should prepare to face consequences as well.

Free stuff is awesome, there's no doubt about it. But if MSU is going to be punished for the illegal file-sharing that is going on around campus, so should the students who are doing the sharing. This is to be expected.

If you want to share files, live off campus. It's as simple as that. If you use your own network, record and music industry executives could still punish you, but MSU can't do anything about it. Students shouldn't blame MSU for punishment - this is the university's network and when illegal activity is going on, it will be responsible for it. The university has to look out for itself.

If we use the network and do illegal things on it, we must prepare for the consequences. We are all so used to downloading songs and movies that we don't realize it is illegal.

However, we feel the record and movie industries need to find a better way to make this work. Attempting to stop it all together will never happen. There will always be file-sharing software available. Companies that are practicing the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy and starting their own file-sharing sites are on the right track.

In the meantime, though, MSU will continue to be punished. Therefore, the university has every right to punish students who share files on its network.