Ever since the Napster craze, while most of us were in high school, “free” online file sharing has gained so much momentum that it will never be stopped.

The moment a solution is put forth, programmers will find a new loophole and the cycle will continue.

Users of programs such as BitTorrent are nearly impossible to track because files are broken down into small pieces and downloaded from various locations.

Every once in a while, we hear about a student on campus getting fined or even worse, threatened with expulsion, and we don’t see any logical reason for that.

People get punished much less for doing things that are much worse.

When people are caught “stealing” music or videos, they are subject to hefty fines from major production companies. In that situation, the last thing a student needs is to be kicked out of college.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the fines are so astronomical that even they are too extreme to be considered a fair punishment.

Not to mention, there are upsides to downloading media for free. All of us have heard a song by an unknown band and gone out and purchased its music.

This is very helpful to small, new or independent bands who are trying to give more people access to their music.

File sharing certainly hurts major production companies and artists, but if anyone has ever watched MTV Cribs, we know they aren’t suffering — including the producers themselves.

Besides, if you really like a band — especially one that is relatively unknown — you should go out and support it by buying its CD and going to its shows.

Programs such as iTunes, which allows you to download songs digitally for 99 cents, are revolutionizing the way people get their music.

Many bands encourage people to share their music by providing free downloads on their Web sites or other domains such as MySpace.

It is time for production companies to emerge from the Stone Age and start finding a reasonable solution — a compromise between all three entities: the consumer, the artist and the producer.File sharing is going to happen, students will participate, and the thorn in production companies’ sides won’t disappear until they find some other way to make money.

Threatening to punish students so severely for something so trivial on a University scale is beyond any logical solution to illegal file sharing.