UW-Madison junior Lena Garcia represents a demographic online pay music service providers would like to target. Garcia said she downloads online music everyday, but primarily uses the online service Grokster, which, like its predecessor Napster, allows users to trade their MP3s with each other and download them at no cost.
When asked why she uses the possibly illegal services at no charge, Garcia stared with a \duh"" expression.
""Because they're free,"" she said.
This attitude represents a challenge to legitimate online music providers, like PressPlay and Listen.com, who must compete on an uneven playing field against Napster clones that allow people to download music for free.
""Free illegal services that don't compensate artists and copyright holders are a significant challenge to us,"" said Seth Oster, vice president of corporate communications for PressPlay.com.
On the other hand, Oster said competition from legitimate competitors is slight.
""We feel we are clearly the leader. We are the only service to offer portability, CD burning and transportation to portable devices,"" Oster said.
PressPlay offers several different monthly packages of streaming and downloading capabilities for prices comparable to basic cable TV fees.
But many people who shell out for cable don't want to do so for online music.
""I'm poor,"" said UW-Madison sophomore Chris Anderson. ""If I can get something for free, I'm going to do that rather than pay for something.""
UW-Madison senior Chris Streufert said he doesn't fret about downloading pirated music.
""I maybe felt a little guilty, but there are other things to worry about,"" Streufert said.
But according to Siva Vaidhyanathan, assistant professor of communications at New York University and author of ""Copyrights and Copywrongs,"" people like Garcia and Anderson may soon become targets of record company crackdowns.
""The war has shifted from the courtroom to the computer itself,"" Vaidhyanathan said.
He said a bill pending in Congress would allow record companies to target individual users, rather than service providers, by tracing their Internet protocol addresses and hacking into their computers. IP addresses are unique series of numbers computers use to identify themselves on the Internet.
""As soon as the record company hacker finds the appropriate computer, they can send out some sort of disruptive program that either constantly requests the file or overtaxes the program, or they can send out a program that acts like a virus,"" Vaidhyanathan said, adding that, ""Any of us sharing files are potential targets of music company hackers.""
For now, legitimate providers will leave the policing to record companies and the government, Oster said. Meanwhile, they will concentrate their efforts on marketing their services to those like Garcia, who don't think they need them.
""The college-age consumer is a market we would very much like to capture,"" Oster said.
