Imagine finding $1,000. That’s almost 60 CDs, more than 200 hours spent working at minimum wage or nearly 500 Big Macs.

Or a couple of hours downloading music on the Internet.

That’s exactly what one McCormick sophomore did. He has more than 1,500 songs downloaded onto his personal computer.

“I don’t want to pay $10 for a CD that only costs 10 cents to make,” he said.

Many Northwestern students think if they can get the songs fast and free on the Internet, then there is no reason to pay for them on CD.

But many of the downloaded songs, called MP3s, violate copyright laws, and it is often difficult to determine if an MP3 is illegal.

NU Information Technology officials said they will take action if they find a student violating copyright laws.

“If we find anything illegal, then typically we warn them,” NUIT Vice President Mort Rahimi said. “If the problem continues we will cooperate with the authorities as appropriate.”

MP3s first appeared in the mid-1990s. With the ability to compress songs to one-tenth of their original size and the advent of faster Internet connections on campus, MP3s quickly have become an unstoppable force in the music industry.

“If there’s a song I think about, I’ll go on and get it,” said a Weinberg sophomore, who accesses the Internet from his South Mid-Quads dorm room.

One of the most popular ways to download songs is called File Transfer Protocol. This method allows students to upload and download songs from all across the country.

As students are becoming more technologically adept, they are finding better ways to download the songs they want.

Many students now use sites such as www.audiogalaxy.com to search the Internet for FTP sites. Then, using file transfer programs such as AbsoluteFTP, provided free by NU, students connect to these sites and download their songs.

According to Roger Safian, the information security coordinator at NU, the university does not police campus computers looking for MP3s.

Generally, if a student is sharing a lot of files on the Internet, the traffic generated by the computer becomes large enough that it is obvious the user is doing something unusual.

Violations are referred to the Office of Student Affairs, and students could lose access to the Internet from their dorm rooms.

“Student Affairs could at that point bring in law enforcement,” Safian said.

Much of the pressure to seek out copyright violations comes from the Recording Industry Association of America, Safian said. Last year the association sent mailings to students nationwide warning them about copyright violations.

David Bernal, a Kellogg graduate student, is currently working on a report for Real Networks, an online media company, concerning the effect MP3s have on the music industry. Through his research he estimates that there are about 5 million high-speed Internet connections on campuses throughout the United States, allowing students to quickly download music.

“The implications for businesses are huge,” Bernal said.

But the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, allows the RIAA to investigate and prosecute MP3 users who violate copyright laws. The association’s Web site states that the DMCA “sets forth rules … to guard against online piracy.”

Music industry professionals fear the number of people accessing MP3s only will grow as the Internet gains popularity. Soon not only college students but also high school students and even moms and dads will be cruising the Internet for MP3s and costing the music industry millions and millions of dollars each year.

But students don’t mind that the music industry isn’t making money off them.

“I’m screwing them over,” said one McCormick sophomore. “I don’t really care.”