Bob Barnes, a 50-year-old grandfather in Fresno, Calif., and the target of another subpeona, acknowledged sharing "several hundred" music files. He said he used the Internet to download hard-to-find recordings of European artists because he was unsatisfied with modern American artists and grew tired of buying CDs without the chance to listen to them first.

One of the great promises of the Internet was that it would tear down all of the distribution barriers, and one would be able to access the independent labels and individual artists directly. Why then do most people spend all of their time downloading music from the RIAA labels if it such crap?