Some say it is right, some say it is wrong, but everyone agrees it's a way to save money.

For people who download music, it's a matter of thrift and convenience to get music from many different Internet sources. For people opposed to it, it is stealing or pirating copyrighted material.

Teens who download music have used the argument "one more person won't hurt" many times since Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster, was charged with copyright infringement in 1999. Many believe the case brought public attention and discussion to the ethics of downloading.

Y-Press interviewed several local teens who participate in Y2Tech, a technology program at The Children's Museum, to find out how they feel about downloading music. Toby Woodard, 14, Scott Hobbie, 16, Geoff "Blair" Fritz, 15, and John Blatzheim, 15, said they downloaded music mainly for financial reasons, although Toby has since quit because he views it as stealing.

Adam Keith, 16, also joined the discussion and spoke in favor of downloading music.

"I started downloading music 'cause my stepbrother had a cable modem. I was wasting too much money on CDs, so I thought it'd be better to download," he said.

John started downloading music after his brother showed him how. "I think most CD prices are way too high. It only costs, like, probably seven bucks to make a CD, and they sell it for, like, 15 bucks. It's a rip-off," he said.

Artists have spoken out against downloading for years. Many say that downloading music is stealing from them. Rapper Eminem's logic is, "If you can afford a computer, you can afford to pay $16 for my CD."

Scott disagreed, "(Downloading music) is better than buying a CD. I mean, they'd probably do it too if they weren't singing."

"I pretty much agree with him," added Toby. "They do make a lot of money, but I still think it's wrong because it's their living. They're trying to make a life."

"If they were broke like most average teens, they'd probably do the same thing," countered Blair, who added, "If there's, like, one good song on a soundtrack, I'm not going to buy the whole CD for 13 bucks for that."

Artists have tried to stop music downloading by protesting. The heavy metal band Metallica sued Yale University, Indiana University and the University of Southern California for allowing students to use Napster. But, as Adam said, "They won't be able to stop it all. . . . They're not gonna catch everyone 'cause there's millions of people that do it."

Adam further argued that some record companies actually encourage people to download music "when they're selling blank CDs, telling people that it'll burn. Cable modems actually help it."

Scott agreed. "If they outlaw sharing and stuff like that 'cause it's stealing, then they'd have to take away CD burners, DVD burners, all that stuff because you're burning music off the CD. I mean, what's to stop you from doing that?" he said.

One reason downloading music is so popular is that it is easy to do with a computer and an Internet connection. Computer programs patterned after Napster are downloadable free of charge. These programs allow any user in a worldwide network to download music from other users.

When Napster was shut down in 2001, other programs were created. Kazaa and Morpheus have the same goal as Napster: to let people share music and other multimedia products for free.

These sites are possible because of posting. Essentially, an Internet user signed on to the service, or network, can access the music files in another network user's computer. Users choose the files they want and then download them onto their hard drive, an Mp3 player or a CD. This process is called posting. Posting multiple songs is known as "sharing."

This ease of use was what attracted Blair to downloading. "You type in the name of the artist or the song you're looking for, you click it, you watch the blue bar go across until it says 100 (percent), or you go grab a bag of chips, come back and it's done," he said.

Sharing can create a relationship between the person downloading and the person uploading. But some people don't like to share. "It's annoying when you're trying to download a song, and then five people are trying to get stuff from your computer. It slows you down," John said.

While all agree that downloading is a form of stealing from artists, Adam believes downloading benefits them as well.

"Without the Internet, some artists wouldn't be as well-known as they are now," he said. "I don't think they should complain because people are downloading their music. They obviously like them, like what they do, so maybe in the future they might actually go buy their CD."

While all but Toby said they would continue to download music while it was still free, they know that it's just a matter of time before the current services end up like Napster.

"People will have to pay because it is illegal, and if you were to say people don't have to pay for stealing the music, that would never happen," said Adam.

AOL recently announced that it will offer a music program for AOL users for $8.95 a month. The plan would let users download music from multiple record labels, but moving songs to CDs or Mp3 players would cost more.

Toby offered a similar approach. "I'd make 'em pay for it, like 10 bucks a month, you know. And then like they would distribute the money to the artist (based) on how popular their stuff was. But you'd have to pay money. If you didn't pay money, you couldn't do it, (like you couldn't) burn it onto a CD, so you couldn't give it to a friend that doesn't want to pay."

REPORTER: Laura Appelt, 12.