E-Mail This Article to a Friend STUDENTS AND THEIR MUSIC RIAA bargaining BY CAMILLE DODERO

Ethan Clay wants to take on the Recording Industry Association of America. But while most RIAA haters discuss boycotting its members or fantasize about lining it up in firearm cross hairs, this 23-year-old BU student wants to do something a little less drastic to stop the greedy association’s nasty ways: negotiate with its representatives. Sure, it sounds wimpy, maybe even futile — like flinging rubber bands at a hungry ogre. But it could result in change, since Clay represents something the RIAA really, really wants to win over: college kids.

This past semester at BU, Clay organized the Get Real Campaign, a grassroots student-run organization founded essentially on the commonly held principle that the draconian manner in which RIAA deals with university students is "ridiculous." Take, for example, the RIAA’s late-April salvo of more than 400 lawsuits targeting college students for file-sharing. Over the phone from the back seat of a friend’s car, Clay admits that students are "one of the largest populations" of illegal file-sharers who "need to realize they can’t be getting free media forever." But the threat of arbitrary litigation won’t stop them from sharing MP3s any more than the murky threat of arrest deters underage drinkers from brandishing fake IDs.

The long-term solution for curbing file-sharing in collegiate circles, Clay reasons, isn’t legal action — it’s student discounts. Thus far, all legal means of acquiring digital files are too expensive for a work-study budget. Napster Premium costs $9.95 a month for unlimited downloading; iTunes charges 99 cents a song. Clay, an economics major, calls both fees "unrealistic" for most undergraduates. "There’s still incentive for [students] to deviate from the market and engage in file-sharing," he says. By downloading from peer-to-peer networks, students "can get songs for a much cheaper price than anything available" — that is, for free. Most businesses offer student discounts, Clay points out, so why shouldn’t the RIAA broker one?

That’s what Get Real wants to facilitate. In addition to rounding up pro bono legal counsel for RIAA-subpoenaed students across the country, the group’s 15-member core is trying to calculate a viable student-discount proposal to bring to the association. Since Get Real is less than two months old, Clay doesn’t have an exact figure yet, but he guesses Get Real will end up asking for unlimited downloads for around $5 a month.

A well-spoken kid when he’s not being distracted by his pal’s bad driving, Clay sounds like he’s already developed a Shawn Fanning complex. As he explains the motivation behind the Get Real Campaign’s logo — a disembodied hand flashing a four-fingered "V for Victory" sign (otherwise known as a Vulcan handshake) that’s no match for Napster’s headphoned, green-eyed feline — Clay’s already imagining Get Real’s moment in the spotlight.

"The bold V-for-Victory is a way that we can get celebrities, or people that support our campaign, to show it in public," Clay explains. "Instead of wearing shirts, they could just pop up a victory hand at an awards show." He pauses. "I’m curious to see if it goes anywhere."

For more information, visit www.getrealcampaign.org.