Although the Recording Industry Association of America has targeted 30,000 college students and music fans with lawsuits over the past four years, music file sharing is still as popular as ever.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported that 20 billion songs were downloaded illegally in 2005.

And with record label sales declining every year, some representatives of the music industry are starting to believe that the only real solution to the problem of file sharing is to legalize it.

The Warner Music Group is negotiating with several universities, proposing “voluntary collective licensing.”

The proposed plan, known as Choruss LLC, is being supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and RIAA.

If plans are accepted, colleges would collect money and the recording industry, through a nonprofit organization, would distribute it to artists.

As part of the agreement, students would be obligated to pay a mandatory fee to download music on their campuses. Specific costs have not been negotiated, but the price might be approximately $5 per student every month, according to reports on wired.com website. In return, students will be free to download music legally using the software of their choice.

The organization would then collect license fees and pay royalties to songwriters and publishers, based on how many times individual songs have been downloaded. The money collected would be divided among artists and rights holders.

According to reports by the several universities in talks with the Warner Music Group, however, the agreement would require acceptance from all major universities in order to be successful.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America Web site, cooperation from university officials is necessary to manage and eliminate illegal music downloading.

“We believe that university leaders have a responsibility to acknowledge campus piracy, to take steps to prevent the theft from occurring in the first place and to demonstrate leadership in teaching students that music has value and there are right and wrong ways to acquire it,” according to the site.

According to the site, piracy habits of college students remain especially and disproportionately problematic – despite progress by the music industry on other fronts. The organization’s statement indicated that more than half of the nation’s college students frequently download music and movies illegally from unlicensed peer-to-peer networks.

“That’s a statistic we just cannot ignore,” according to the site. “As a result, we have stepped up our efforts to address college piracy across the board by continuing our push for legal music offerings on campuses.”

Jim Griffin, Warner’s proponent for the blanket-license proponent, said that the proposal is exactly what several universities have been looking for.

According to reports by the Institute for Policy Innovation, music piracy causes $12.5 billion in economic losses every year, 71,000 U.S. jobs and $2.7 billion in workers’ earnings.

“Piracy harms not only the owners of intellectual property, but also U.S. consumers, workers, and taxpayers,” said Stephen Siwek, author of the report. “Moreover, the impact of music piracy appears to be intensifying.”

However, after hearing about legal troubles that result from downloading, some OSU students opted to cut their ties with filesharing programs such as LimeWire.

“I deleted the program and all of the songs of my computer after I heard how many people were getting caught downloading and the charges they were facing,” said one OSU student who requested to remain anonymous. “Having to paying thousands of dollars for those songs really isn’t worth it.”

According to the RIAA, before formal lawsuits are filed, students are given a chance to settle at a rate between $3,000 and $5,000 dollars. If they choose not to settle, the Federal Copyright Act mandates payment of $750 per recording.

A statement on the RIAA Web site indicated that the industry is not trying to end music sharing completely, but simply want students to abide by the laws.

“We want fans to enjoy their iPods, CD burners, and other devices, but we want them to do so responsibly, respectfully, and within the law,” according to the site.

In 2007, 17 OSU students were subpoenaed by the RIAA due to illegal downloading.

Lisa Scott can be reached at [email protected].