Students in a freshman seminar on music piracy held end of the year presentations yesterday in which students outlined their solutions to a prominent student issue.

This is the first year "Stealing in Music City" has been offered to students. Faculty members Holling Smith-Borne and Sara Manus said the goal was to expose students to various perspectives in the music industry from copyright lawyers to musicians.

"(Piracy) is a hot topic in our culture. We thought the class would attract students," said Smith-Borne, the director of the music library at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music.

Three student groups presented, proposing solutions ranging from revisions in the copyright law to re-establishing the market for music and involving influential celebrities to raise money for piracy education.

Because of the class, first-year student Sarah Barr is considering interning with publishing company Bug Music.

"(My group members and I) became closer because we put so much so much effort into the project," said Barr. "It was a really eye-opening experience."

The first group's plan involved a collective licensing plan in which customers could pay a certain amount of money a month for music use, among other things. The second group proposed using government action to determine how many times a track is song is shared through using modern technology. The third and final group proposed increased education to teach students about piracy as an ethical problem and register with peer-to-peer networks.

First-year student Dan Astrachan felt the class was an interesting experience.

"I'm glad I took it, otherwise I wouldn't know there were so many people involved in the music industry and hear multiple perspectives from people in the field. I took away with me a better ability to work in groups."

Manus, education and outreach librarian, believes the class offers more than just education about the industry.

"This class allows students to understand ethically how this effects musicians, people who will be out of work in the music industry," said Manus.

BY TAYLOR DAVIS AND LILY CHEN