Now that the FBI wants to ride on the wagon to chase file-swappers, it is time for everyone to rethink what they are doing before downloading the next illegal [aka not-purchased] file from the internet through a file-sharing software.

In a sense, this should make people think twice, or thrice [since they were already thinking twice because of the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) riding the wagon all the time now]. People have been arguing for years now that the information that the RIAA is providing to people is misleading and that the RIAA is overcharging for music every year. However, that has not stopped the RIAA from continuing on its course of action to find more and more illegal file swappers.

As a reply, people are starting to get RIAA in different ways. The famous MyDoom virus now has a small variant out, that is set to attack the main RIAA website. This shows that people out there do not like the way companies are forcing consumers to pay for content they believe should be cheaper. The original MyDoom virus targeted those who were said to oppose “open source”, and this one targets the company which opposes free music. It may be a coincidence, and it may be a message from those who think the current market trends in major consumer industries should change. RIAA has been accused of posing as cops and government officials to scare people from selling illegal copies of music, which majority of the people who find out about this news, claim is illegal in this country. A New Jersey woman has sued the RIAA for acting like gangsters in a first-of-its-kind countersue-case. Most of the people are turning to the Electronic Frontier Freedom [EFF] to react to the claims by the RIAA.

It is yet hard to say whether people are downloading more than before, or whether the number of downloaders has decreased because of the many developments rising because of free downloading, including the above one. RIAA asserts that music downloading is decreasing, yet some research firms are saying that music downloading is on the rise.

Even though the future of both the RIAA and the free music swappers is on the line, one thing is for certain; both sides are going to keep going after each other in as many ways as possible, trying to force the other to stop.