The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been decrying the use of MP3 technology since its inception. It is so easy for recorded music to be pirated that many people do it without even thinking it’s wrong. The fact that it is wrong has been brought home to some individuals in expensive ways. Last year a jury found Joel Tenenbaum guilty of sharing 30 songs with his friends. This willful copyright infringement brought with it a fine in the order of $675,000. Recently, Judge Nancy Gertner reduced the award to 10% of what the jury gave to the record companies. She cited in the decision that such an extremely high award was unconstitutional. While arguments from both sides may be heated on the subject, it only illustrates what a problem file sharing through MP3s has become. Whereas $22,500 might be an extreme expense for sharing a song, there should be a way to limit what can be freely used by so many. If there is a need for anything in the technology field, it is a way to control piracy without making it impossible to download music. The manufacture and use of MP3 players continues to grow, and there aren’t many homes that don’t have at least one. When thieves steal something they can easily sell for quick bucks, they often choose iPods because they are easy to grab and easy to find a market for. What concerns the RIAA is that MP3 is an unpatented and freely available technology. Without any controls, it is difficult even to get a handle on how much piracy is taking place. Because audio can be compressed to 1/12 of its size, as it exists in WAV format without perceivable loss in sound quality, it is a very acceptable media for everyone. An average song is compressed to approximately 3.75 Mb of data making it extremely easy and quick to download, and it requires such little space to store the data that thousands of songs can be placed in a relatively small storage place. The files are carried to a small iPod, providing hours and hours of entertainment for a minuscule amount of investment. Conversion of a standard CD to MP3 is done with little sound loss. The resultant file can be copied repeatedly without appreciable quality loss. Therefore, even if someone legally buys the music, it is often one sale to the benefit of many who never have to purchase anything, other than the hardware and storage to make copies. The technology is here; how to bridle it for the benefit of those who pay the money to have the music produced is the important issue.