Micah Fields relented to the temptation of downloading that one song, or 50, that she just couldn't get out of her head, and she got caught. Twice.

The kinesiology junior wasn't forced to pay any fines and wasn't taken to court, but did have an hour-long meeting with an MSU official regarding the violation of the school's Internet use agreement.

Fields isn't alone. So far this school year, MSU has received 753 complaints from the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, citing illegal downloads.

This statistic caused MSU to be named No. 7 on the list of top 25 universities that have received notices from the RIAA stating someone using MSU's Internet connection has illegally downloaded music.

But the ranking has declined over the years, said Randall Hall, who's in charge of MSU's Network Acceptable Use Policy Compliance — a position created partly due to the number of RIAA complaints MSU has obtained.

MSU was once ranked No. 1 in the nation for number of illegal download complaints. But with falling numbers, the university no longer bears the brunt as the best in stifling record companies. In the 2002-03 school year, MSU had 2,800 complaints, compared with 1,000 for 2005-06 — a 64 percent decrease.

Regardless of whether someone has downloaded 2,000 songs or 20, the RIAA has a right to take the violator to court since the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998 made downloading music freely without the copyright holder's permission illegal.

"What most students don't realize is a lawsuit isn't the worst thing that can happen," Hall said.

"They can be charged for a felony. We've never had that here at MSU, but I have seen cases where students have been charged with a felony."

Violators can be charged as much as $150,000 per song title by the RIAA, but Hall said the settlements he's seen have ranged from $3,000-$35,000.

But MSU doesn't provide students' names to the RIAA, unless a subpoena is issued.

When MSU receives a complaint, the university provides the RIAA with the Internet Protocol Address or "IP" address. MSU also notifies the student that they've been illegally sharing music. The student then has 48 hours to respond, Hall said.

"If the student hasn't responded by that time, we are required by law to make sure the file-sharing has stopped, so we take them off (the Internet connection) until we can confirm," Hall said.

About 6 percent to 8 percent of complaints MSU receives are for second-time offenders, who are required to see Hall for an hour-long talk regarding illegal file-sharing and are booted off MSU's network for at least a week. This week has been slow — Hall has spoken with one student but can see as many as 20 students a week, he said.

A third violation means a trip to Judicial Affairs in the Department of Student Life, where a student may be suspended for a semester and have their MSU network privileges revoked indefinitely, Hall said.

The theory that only those who share music illegally are caught isn't necessarily true, Hall said.

"Most people will share even if they think they're not sharing," he said. "This is something people don't realize. Ares, Kazaa, LimeWire, BearShare — they all have check boxes that say 'Don't share files.' That check box doesn't work. It's a dummy check box."

MSU introduced Ruckus last year — a file-sharing program that's free for students and includes 12,000 subscribers who've downloaded 3 million songs, Hall said. The only drawback — the songs can't be converted to MP3 formats, so they can't be stored on an iPod.

But with the introduction of movies and television shows to the file-sharing network next fall, Hall hopes more students will be drawn to the legal program.

Jennifer Grima, a communicative sciences and disorders junior, said her boyfriend was notified to change his illegal file-sharing ways, and most of her friends' expansive music libraries are thanks to file-sharing methods.

"I personally think (downloading music) should be free," she said. "My opinion is that famous celebrities are paid too much as it is."

Laura Misjak can be reached at misjakla@msu.edu.