Although we aren’t really behind the RIAA and the war it has been waging against students accused of filesharing illegally, we would strongly advise any student who is caught out for filesharing to pay the out-of-court settlement fee rather than let the case go to court.

It’s not a matter of principle, but rather common sense. The law is the law and if you find yourself with a hefty fine, you have to pay it. One student at the University of Maryland University College, who goes by the name of Jessica, refused to pay the out-of-court settlement after being caught sharing nearly 300 songs with the filesharing program Limewire.

We commend Jessica for standing up against the RIAA, but is it really worth ruining your education over? There are other ways to make a stand. As Jessica says, the $3,000 settle is ridiculous, but this is the risk we all run by using filesharing programs to get free music downloads.

In their defense, the RIAA did offer Jessica a six-month payment plan, but that wasn’t enough and the case will now go to court where, in all likelihood, Jessica will be slapped with a hefty fine.

Dark days.

The fallout from the announcement that the UK government is working to come up with laws to tackle illegal filesharing is starting to show. Already media outlets are questioning the logic behind such actions.

The Guardian published an opinion piece showing that attention has been drawn by the government’s threat to introduce legislation if ISPs can’t come up with a way to deal with filesharing.

The move has been hailed as a victory for the music industry, but a worry for everyone else — including the millions of people who use filesharing services like Ares.

According to a survey, 43% of respondents had engaged in shady filesharing activities. We expect that figure translates to the wider world, meaning that half of the Internet may be targeted by this new filesharing legislation.

Bad news, right?

Another study has shown that about 70% of Internet users would stop filesharing if they knew it was being done illicitly. We’re unsure exactly what that means.

There are lots of jokes that could be made about the Aussies following the Brits, but what’s the point in joking when the subject matter is a clamp down on filesharing? It’s certainly not funny news.

Australia, however, looks set to follow suit in a bid to take on illegal filesharing. With France also on the verge of coming down on filesharing, the Western world looks all set to wage its war on illegal music downloads. That’s great, in theory, but negates the fact that there is a rest of the world out there.

The RIAA is obviously chuffed with this news, as the British and Australian governments debate new laws that could rid their respective countries of filesharing. No word on how they will differentiate between legal and illegal filesharing. No word on if they even know the difference.

As I write this from Thailand, I’d say that Asia is the place to be if you don’t want to be taken for a ride for filesharing. Anyone with me?

We knew it was going to happen. The UK Government this week has turned the screws on ISPs to crack down on illegal filesharing. New laws have been promised if ISPs can’t come up with a solution to tackle filesharing.

Illegal filesharing needs to be stopped, apparently, and legal music downloads need to take its place. Yeah right, like that’s going to happen. There have been rumors that illegal filesharing will be combated with a “three strikes” system leading up to Internet connections being cut.

The new filesharing law won’t come into effect until next April. ISPs, however, seem reluctant to come out with plans to deal with filesharing. After all, filesharing is incredibly popular and the backlash will be enormous.

It’s all very vague at the moment but filesharing in the UK could soon leave a lot of people without access to the Internet, greatly affecting the business of ISPs.

Another brave soul has decided to take on the RIAA in its filesharing battle with the world. This time it’s Rolando Armurao, who is accused of sharing some 500 songs through the free filesharing program Limewire. In this case, it’s been suggested that Media Sentry operated without a private investigator’s license in its filesharing snooping.

Media Sentry is a company paid by record labels to track down people who are up to no good with free filesharing software like Limewire. The information is passed onto the RIAA to be used in court.

Apparently, this evidence-gathering business almost always requires a license. Once again, it’s unclear how this filesharing duel will pan out. Usually in these cases, a lengthy courtroom debate is set up or else the cases are settled out of court. Rolando Armurao will be lucky to get out of this one without being fined, but only time will tell.

We can’t say why, but Spain is apparently the European leader in terms of filesharing and illegal music downloads. We would have thought that Sweden would have topped the filesharing tree, but apparently the award goes to the Spaniards.

In 2007, 1.2 billion illegal music downloads were procured through filesharing programs like Limewire and Ares. This increase in shady music downloads has gone up from just 180 million in 2003.

According to the European Interactive Advertising Assn, 58% of all Spanish Internet users downloaded music illegally in 2006 compared to a 37% average across Europe.

With these kinds of figures, it’s clear that filesharing isn’t something that is going to stopped any time soon — not unless more than half of all Internet users are going to be targeted.

After email, surfing and chatting, getting free music downloads illegally is the fourth most common Internet activity that Spaniards partake in. Good on the Spaniards.

When deciding which P2P filesharing software you want to use, there are heaps of options to choose from. These options, however, vary in quality dramatically. Consistently one of the best choices for filesharing is Ares, an open-source application that is yet to be hit with the same sort of legal problems as services like Limewire.

Ares is open source and so it is constantly being improved by the people who use it. Each different version utilizes the same network and protocol, making Ares one of the top-performing filesharing programs available.

Ares is quick to install and easy to use, with fast music downloads and a huge network of music to search through. Any song you can think of, you’ll be able to find it on Ares.

There are more than 100 million tracks on the Ares network — and that number is growing every day. Filesharing also has its advantages over some services that place restrictions on the music files that people download.

If you are new to filesharing or want to find a service that is vastly superior to its competitors for music downloads, Ares should be the first place you look. Filesharing is becoming the primary way that people obtain their music. If you haven’t taken the plunge with a program like Ares, you’re behind the times.

Other filesharing programs for music downloads include Morpheus and newcomer Omemo.

Trent Reznor, frontman or Nine Inch Nails, has come out with the absurd idea that there should be an Internet tax to compensate for all the illegal music downloads that go on. It seems that everybody is trying to figure out a way to tackle filesharing and free music downloads.

Trent Reznor’s idea is that all users of the Internet be charged $5 by their ISP. This money would then somehow be redistributed to artists. This would be incredibly difficult to administer.

Also, it seems ridiculous to make the whole world pay for the small percentage of people who use filesharing services for dodgy music downloads. We thought Trent Reznor was a bastion for free music downloads, but we’re not so sure any more.

Reznor was unhappy with his experience with the Saul Williams album, which he made available for fans to pay what they thought the music download was worth. Reznor is thinking about doing the same for the next NIN album, but if he does so, he will likely offer a real CD as well as the music download.

Poor guy seems baffled by the world. Remember that this was the guy who told his fan to steal his music.

Limewire remains consistently one of the most popular filesharing services available. Recent reports stated that Limewire is installed on over a third of all the world’s PCs. These figures turned out to be mistaken and the correct figure is somewhere around 18%. Despite being significantly lower, that’s still an enormous number of computers that Limewire is found on.

2007 was a great year for Limewire — the service is still here and it’s still rocking. 2008 looks set to be even better. Not only will Limewire users soon have the Limewire store, but they will also have Limespot, a kind of social networking service that will bring artists together with music fans.

When using the filesharing service, searches will also bring up links for people to see photos, tour dates, lyrics, watch music videos, buy music, and so on. Limewire is looking set to become the ultimate music resource, not just for music downloads, but for everything. We’re thrilled that things are going to well for Limewire.

When it comes to choosing which filesharing service is right for you, there are a range of options at your disposal. The trouble is that for every decent filesharing service, there will be a bunch that don’t live up to expectations. One of the newest filesharing services for music downloads is Omemo, although the service is still so new that it’s difficult to assess how good it is.

Ares is a more established resource for music downloads. Ares is open source and has been around for several years. Being open source means that people are constantly making changes and improvements to the music-download facilities.

Ares users have access to well over 100 million tracks. The easy-to-use interface means that searching for music downloads is a piece of cake and can be done in seconds. Filesharing is one of the primary ways in which people get the music they want. If you haven’t already started using a program like Ares, you’re behind the times.

You can get Ares on a free download. It currently rates as one of the best filesharing services around for music downloads.