Can the Music Biz Adapt to File Sharing?

May 9  -- If you try to download Madonna's newest single off the Internet this week, you might get this message from her instead: "What the f*** do you think you're doing?"

Madonna is upset about the newest way to get music — downloading it from the Internet. It's illegal, but almost every young person does it. Search for the song you want, click on it, and in minutes it's on your computer. Free.

At this moment, several million people are probably at their computers sucking music off the Internet.

Four years ago the music industry tried to stop this downloading by suing Napster — the first major music-sharing business.

The music industry won. A federal judge ordered Napster to get rid of any copyrighted songs it made available to users.

But while that killed Napster, it didn't kill the practice, because immediately, other sites popped up and downloading music became even more popular. Now, even my own kids do it.

So last month the music industry filed more lawsuits — this time against four college students who set up Web sites that helped people get music — suing them for $150,000 for every copyright violation, which totaled more than $90 million.

"These kids were engaged in pretty outrageous behavior," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.

Sherman complained the students were breaking copyright laws, and said the industry had to take this action to send a message that "nobody is above the law."

Dan Peng, one of the four students who was sued for millions, said, "This could not possibly be happening to me, right? Everybody at every college across America, and most high schools are sharing files, right?"

Peng said he set up his Web site at the request of fellow students — and never made a penny off of it.

Peng thinks the industry is just trying to intimidate people, and said he's definitely intimidated by the money the industry demanded in its lawsuit.

But Sherman said, "Nobody is expecting kids to pay that kind of money — and they won't." He added, "That's just the legal stuff, that you put in papers."