Downloading music is synonymous with the Internet in a lot of peoples eyes, especially for the 30 & under set. But if you live in Tampa you may want to re-think that mentality. In today’s issue of the TBT, Thomas Kaplan reveals the RIAA’s (Recording Industry Association of America) attempt to shakedown the citizens of the Tampa Bay area.

A review of court records shows that at least 50 area people have not even bothered to fight the illegal downloading lawsuits in court. Judges have ordered them to pay the record companies an average of $6,000 each.

That doesn’t include the many people who settle rather than face a lawsuit. Attorneys say there is little else for defendants to do but settle or simply allow the court to rule against them. Legal costs are prohibitive and the prospect of a court battle with the record industry is daunting.

And the RIAA have no mercy when it comes to these lawsuits. Kaplan’s profiles Morgan Halloway, a 23-year-old senior at St. Petersburg College who lives in Dunedin. Halloway is a full-time student and when presented with the suit by the RIAA, she tried to settle out of court but couldn’t afford the $5,000 fee that the record companies demanded. So like many of the others that have been sued, she did nothing. In April, a federal judge in Tampa entered a $7,500 judgment against her.

This is a growing trend in the Tampa Bay area, so download at your own risk. If you are still going to do it you may want to know this info as well:

How the record guys catch you in the act
In general, record companies monitor peer-to-peer file sharing networks online — accessed through programs like Lime Wire and, before it was shut down, the original Napster — to see if copyright songs are available for download. The programs allow people to make their music collection available to fellow Internet users to download, and to search for songs (and movies and TV shows) to download for their own enjoyment. But people who share their music can be identified by their internet protocol (IP) address, which can then be traced to reveal their identity and allow the record companies to file lawsuits.

Go to http://www.tampabay.com/tbt/ for the full article.