I am a criminal. At least, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) I am.

This is how it happened.

A friend told me to check out a fairly new group, My Morning Jacket, a country-rock band that sounds a bit like the Allman Brothers. But before I plunked down 15 bucks to buy the group’s CD, I wanted to hear the songs, and My Morning Jacket is not a band that’s being promoted by a big record label. They’re not on MTV; they’re not in heavy rotation on the radio. So the only way to hear them is to go online.

Using P2P technology, I downloaded a few songs off their new album. It was pretty easy. First, I logged on to the music file-sharing website Kazaa. Soon enough, the network found tracks from the band’s new album, It Still Moves, opening a gateway between my hard drive and a hard drive somewhere storing the new tracks. Within minutes, I was downloading.

The recording industry calls this theft.

Well, maybe it is. But because I was able to hear My Morning Jacket, I ended up buying a $12 ticket to its show when the band came through town. And I convinced three people to come with me. I also gave the tracks to other friends. Next time the band comes around, they’ll go to the concert.

I think that’s good for the music business.

The RIAA doesn’t agree.

Stop, in the Name of Profits

The recording industry blames people like me for a 14 percent decline in its revenue since 1999. It’s so torqued off about all this that it’s filed more than 900 lawsuits since last September. Included in those suits, Brianna LaHara, a 12-year-old living in public housing, settled a lawsuit with the RIAA for $2,000 after admitting copyright infringement.

The RIAA has Web crawlers searching the Internet 24/7 for thieves like me and LaHara. Using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the RIAA subpoenaed ISP Verizon, demanding that it provide user contact information. My contact information. The RIAA lost that suit last December when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down a lower-court ruling that forced ISPs to reveal the identity of any Internet subscriber accused of music piracy. But that loss hasn’t discouraged the RIAA, which says the remedies it’s seeking in the courts are necessary to preserve its business model.

Nice model. How’s it working out for them?

By their own admission, not very well.