The music, film and television industries have tried for years to stop the illegal sharing of copyrighted material over the Internet, which has become increasingly popular among students thanks to the proliferation of file-sharing Web sites. Media companies must accept piracy as a permanent problem with no feasible solutions. For the next generation of leaders and workers, copyright violation has become an acceptable practice, despite its illegality. A study by California-based copyright tracking company Bay-TSP revealed that infringements are still rampant even at the most prestigious United States colleges and universities. Bay-TSP found that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had more instances of digital piracy than any other U.S. university in 2008. According to the companyâÄôs annual report, MIT came in first for the second year in a row with 2,593 infringements. The University of Washington came in second with 1,888 violations, and third was Boston University with 1,408 violations. Media companies cannot stop students from stealing their content and should follow the example of the music industry. In December, the Recording Industry Association of America announced it would stop suing individual people for sharing music. It is an unfortunate trend that students receiving some of the best educations the United States has to offer have no moral qualms over digital theft, but the trend is unlikely to reverse. Media industries must think smarter in order to discourage piracy among students, but they must also learn to accept it. This editorial, accessed via UWire, was originally published in The Oracle at the University of South Florida. Please send comments to [email protected].