THE INEVITABLE has come for BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay. Black Internet has ceased providing bandwidth to the files-sharing site (or information theft site, depending on your point of view). The Pirate Bay is in serious trouble; it is the most recent big name peer-to-peer site that is facing opposition from civil lawsuits joining the now infamous Napster and others.\nAlthough operators of TPB are still fighting their battle in hopes of providing the world with free movies and music, their fate is already determined. But what is even more of a sure thing - even more than another criticism of the Obama administration via Dick Cheney - is that there are hundreds of other sites waiting in line to become the "next best thing".\nWhat does this addiction imply about the music and movie industries and their consumers? For the big time companies and their consumers, the answer revolves around greed. The question left unanswered is which side is greedier. On one hand, Sony, Universal, Disney, and the rest are not about to declare bankruptcy any time soon (knock on wood). On the other hand, the files shared on these sites are no more than entertainment, nothing essential. Perhaps companies are guilty of getting rich off the little guy and perhaps consumers are guilty of being too cheap to support the companies. Does that still give people the right to download copyrighted art from companies already making millions?\nConsistently among the top downloaded torrents are box office blockbuster and albums that top every music chart there is. Surely the amount of revenue that is lost from online users is minimal compared to what is raked in. That seems to be an enormous benefit to consumers at very little cost to producers.\nOccasionally, there will be an independent album or film that makes a lot of buzz on the net and gets downloaded a decent amount. This might hurt that artist or movie in the short-run but actually provides much more exposure to them in the long-run. Dane Cook, Tila Tequila, and Paris Hilton were all made famous simply from sharing their not-so-funny jokes, not-so-modest social skills, and not-so-relevant gossip, respectively. Even people that are mediocre at what they do best can make a decent living if they get their name out there.\nWith all that said, internet pirating is not a victimless crime. The music and movie industries have found ways around illegal downloading, but they are still losing money. And although their CEOs certainly aren't going to starve on the streets tonight because some thirteen-year old decided not to pay to watch Transformers 2, it might mean that some employees might be laid off because there is no room to keep someone at the lowest rung on the ladder even when their top dogs are making 100 times that amount.\nWhile a possible solution of making sites like The Pirate Bay to require their users to pay a subscription fee has been rejected by the sites developers, it seems like the only reasonable way to solve this dilemma would be to enforce this policy. File sharing sites are not exactly playing the role of Robin Hood because they do not supply necessities to the poor, but rather entertainment to those who can already afford entertainment. The super rich companies (not including some workers mentioned above) cannot really play the victim card either because they are still getting rich, just not as rich.\nPerhaps a small subscription fee for otherwise free music and movies might make companies realize that they have been overcharging for their products. Ironically, a middle-man might actually lower the prices as opposed to inflating them. If - and it's a big if - the producers and middle-men agree on a low fee, then the third and final party that is responsible for making sure this proposal goes through is the consumers. As anti-capitalistic as this may sound, consumers would have to support those sites that offer the same product for a low price and not those that offer the same product for free. If we follow this path, consumers will have the final say. If they choose to reject this path, then there will be no one else to blame for $15 movie tickets or $1000 fines if caught downloading illegally.\nEditor's Note: This column was written before The Pirate Bay went back online yesterday afternoon.\nHung Vu's column usually appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.
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