Aha...and destiny setps in. Maybe i should have surfed around before writing the post below.
Julie Hilden has an article up on the FindLaw commentary pages: Should Universities crack down on file swapping?

* "Indeed, under the No Electronic Theft Act (NETA), enacted in 1997, illegal file swapping is a federal felony, punishable with a prison term. Meanwhile, swappers also face potential liability under longstanding federal copyright statutes, and the more recent Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)."

* "[U]niversities should take the lead in mounting free speech and "fair use" challenges to the application of NETA and the DMCA. They should also take the lead in spearheading lobbying efforts that seek to achieve a more moderate legislative solution - one under which legal file swapping is plainly protected, and its parameters are clear."

* "The central argument that illegal file swapping is a serious crime comes from an analogy that compares it to simple theft - that is, to going into a store to shoplift a CD by hiding it in one's jacket.
The analogy isn't quite fair, however - for unlike with shoplifting, the jury is still out as to whether illegal file sharing costs record (or movie) companies money, or whether the free promotion counterbalances the loss from the free listening (or watching)."