When Tim Davis got caught trading songs, it made him semifamous. Davis, an artist who teaches photography at Yale, was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America last September and was featured in news articles around the world.

Since then, he has made his plight a public cause to help recoup the $10,000 he spent on his legal defense and to settle the lawsuit. He sold “Free Timmy” T-shirts and held a fund-raising party at his studio. Visitors to his Web site, davistim.com, can leave a donation in an online “tip jar.” The lawsuit, he said, is “an insane kind of disproportionate response” to his musical sins.

Then there is Jeff, who trades movies online. Jeff, who lives in New York and discussed his situation only on the condition that his full name not be used, received a letter from his cable company explaining that New Line Cinema had found a copy of “Freddy vs. Jason” available for sharing through his Internet account. The letter noted that the movie industry did not know his identity but could go to court to discover it and might eventually sue him. “It gave me a little scare,” he said.

News source: C|Net News.com