The Recording Industry Association of America’s crackdown on 14 students at Pitt last week… The Recording Industry Association of America’s crackdown on 14 students at Pitt last week was just the latest of its futile attempts at preserving an industry that has been struggling for years.

The students – whose names were matched with the Internet protocol addresses monitored and provided by the RIAA – received pre-litigation settlement letters last week informing them that they had been caught illegally downloading music on campus computer networks and would have 20 days to settle their fines, a minimum of $750 for each copyrighted recording that had been infringed, out of court. The Pitt students were among 403 students at 22 universities who received the letters.

The RIAA has historically targeted students on college campuses – a demographic known for its high rates of illegal downloading.

While illegal downloading is, inarguably, against the law, its prevalence – particularly among college students – since the inception of online music sharing should be telling the recording industry something: Despite RIAA crackdowns on illegal music downloading, people will continue to download music illegally.

Why? Because it’s out there, and economic theory tells us that if we can get the product for free, there’s no sense in paying for it.

Of course, it’s not that simple. People who download music illegally aren’t just getting the product for free; they’re stealing it. But, until this trend goes away, the recording industry is going to be left with two options: Fight it or join it.

Sure, the RIAA can continue to cite illegal downloaders, but they’re never going to make up for the amount of money they are losing every year. So instead of fighting the trend, why not create a new business model that buys into it?

Just look at the TV industry. Instead of cracking down on the millions of viewers who turned to Internet downloads of TV shows, they decided to stream their shows online for free, making money off of advertisements.

Even within the music industry, there have been some strides at co-opting the trend of online music downloading. Apple has become incredibly successful by selling individual songs on its music program iTunes.

And just this week, Radiohead announced that they will allow fans to download their album for free –