''IT shouldn't be illegal,'' said 14-year-old Sonya Arndt. ''It's not like I'm selling it.''
''Isn't it like recording movies?'' asked Korbi Blanchard, 13. ''They're making a big thing out of nothing.''
''It's wrong to be downloading hundreds of songs, but if you only want one or two, it's not that big a deal,'' said 13-year-old Kristina Lee.
When the record industry's campaign against digital file-sharing yielded lawsuits on Sept. 8 against 261 people -- at least one as young as 12 -- it struck home with students at Foothill Middle School as news events seldom do.
Almost all of the 1,100 students at the school, in this suburb 25 miles east of San Francisco, have Internet-connected computers at home. And their musical tastes, like those of teenagers before them, are strongly held -- Linkin Park, 50 Cent, Good Charlotte -- as are their views of right, wrong and fairness.
So Valerie Kriger, a Foothill teacher, chose music downloading as her Friday current events topic
Later that day, two of Ms. Kriger's classes -- her yearbook class, with seventh and eighth graders, and her social studies and English students, all eighth graders -- spent their class time sharing their thoughts on the subject with a reporter. In all, nearly 50 students wanted to weigh in with their opinions.
And those opinions came out in a flood. Virtually everyone wanted to express some indignation at the recording industry, mixed with no small amount of confusion over the legal issues.
Theirs is a downloading culture. A few clicks of a mouse bring them not just music, but movies, games, and instant communication as well. Legality seems beside the point as they click their way through licensing agreements, impatient for the software at the other end.
Although happy to give their views, Ms. Kriger's students were decidedly more guarded when asked about their own downloading practices.
Reluctantly, more than half said they had downloaded music. Several said they did not want their parents to know. And only half of those who downloaded music said they knew that they were violating copyrights.
Sonya Arndt, an energetic eighth grader known in class for speaking out, had the most to say. The record industry is simply greedy, she said. The industry should not be going after a bunch of kids. And how were her friends supposed to afford the high cost of CD's?
