MSU officials have a warning for students who try to illegally download music and movies - do it and pay the price.

"We have to change the way students look at file-sharing and change the way they think about it," MSU network administrator Randall Hall said.

File-sharing programs, such as KaZaA, have become a bigger problem for the MSU networks in the past year, causing about 200 complaints per week from companies such as record labels, Hall said.

Computer Center officials are working to develop a more specific addition to clarify the university's Acceptable Use Policy, which better explains punishments for file-sharing.

"We need to get a document that spells out in black and white, 'you can do this, you can't do this,'" said Hall, who has recently become the policy's compliance administrator.

The policy attempts to lay out a better framework for company complaints as well as a step-process for students who file-share.

Hall and his staff handles about 35 file-sharing cases per day.

Companies can scan files on a network by using a simple and legal program, Hall said. If they find one of their movies or pieces of music, they can file a complaint with the Computer Center. The student who's computer was storing the file would then be notified by e-mail by Computer Center staff and warned to stop sharing, or their connection might be shut off. The university is using a "slap on the wrist" method for dealing with file-sharing students for the first offense.

Second or third time offenders could face academic suspension or loss of Internet access. Repeat offenders who don't stop sharing could even be kicked out of the university, Hall said.

By using file-sharing programs, students are setting themselves up for more than just complaints from record companies, he said.

"This is a real misconception among students. They think ( KaZaA) is just a program where they can go out and look for movies and music - but they are really just opening up a distribution server," he said. "They are setting themselves up for attack by both hackers and scanning by companies in this situation."

But some students say it's not worth the university's time to try and catch students sharing.

"Everyone's doing it," political science senior Cynthia Milligan said. "They would eventually have to shut everyone down - there's going to be a backlash against the university if they do that."

But Computer Center officials say they can't ignore the large amounts of illegal file-sharing that takes place on MSU networks.

"Illegal activity is something we don't condone," said Richard Wiggins, senior information technologist for the Computer Center. "We are obligated to investigate and if necessary, we do shut people off."

"Not all file-sharing is illegitimate - no university wants to be in the business of having to police activity on the campus network," Wiggins said.

In response to students using the MSU network more heavily, the Computer Center purchased new bandwidth for the university, raising bandwidth costs from $124,000 to more than $1.5 million.

Wiggins said it would be nearly impossible to try and prevent students from sharing on the network.

"You could try to block the activity, but once you try to implement a way to block it, people will find a way to get around it," Wiggins said. "Any kind of a technical solution is, in the long run, probably doomed to succeed."

Some students say they understand the university's concern about file-sharing.

"They're like stuck," 2003 MSU graduate Justin Niswander said. "They are the first legally responsible body in this."

Niswander said the university took a good step by putting an e-mail warning system in place, rather than immediate punishments.

"I doubt its very prevalent on people's minds that they might be thrown in jail, fined, or kicked out of the university for downloading music," he said.