In Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) commemorated World Intellectual Property Day, which is meant to promote discussion of intellectual property issues worldwide.
The BSA is a group dedicated to fighting piracy and other intellectual property offenses.
According to a study the BSA released in February, the number of people illegally downloading music in the United States has dropped by about 20 percent since 2004.
It found that, while people tend to download more without paying as they become teenagers and college students, the overall number of people downloading has decreased.
At Tufts, students have mixed feelings on illegal downloading. One student said that many people download due to a common mentality that it is acceptable behavior. "They say 'What difference does it make if I do it when everyone else is?'" sophomore Alexandra Levis said. "I think it's definitely related to the fact that it's free to download, and they think it's not a big deal.
"My friends just burn CDs for me, so I don't know if they bought the music or got it secondhand or even third-hand," Levis said.
But many other students said that they don't individually download music often, if ever.
"I very rarely download music anymore," senior Anita Sinha said. "I feel like the majority of people I talk to are buying songs from iTunes now."
One student no longer downloads because of the risk of getting caught by the University.
"I did it before, and Tufts put a lock on my computer. I had to take it to the tech department, and I had to take a course about illegal downloading," sophomore Mark Sy said.
The laws against piracy allow for huge financial penalties against those who illegally copy or download copyrighted material. Fines can range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars - frightening numbers for many young people.
The BSA study, however, found that less than half of respondents were concerned about getting in trouble with the law. Instead, 63 percent cited a fear of viruses as their biggest worry about downloading music, software and movies.
"I only buy music from iTunes now," junior Maya Lima said. "I got lots of viruses from the downloading programs I used to use, like Kazaa."
Tufts has used several methods to erase piracy from its network. In addition to monitoring how much bandwidth students use - which can be indicative of significant downloading activity - Tufts offers a free account with Cdigix, a database of music that is free to download.
Most students still don't believe that Tufts is stopping illegal downloads. "It hasn't done anything to deter students from downloading - people are still doing it because they don't think they'll get caught," Lima said.
Students also have complaints that Cdigix is not user-friendly.
"I remember when we got emails from Tufts about it, and I tried to use it, but I couldn't figure it out," sophomore Elaine Harris said.
