Out of more than 8.5 million students who illegally download music in the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America picked Sara Barg.
She was one of 25 University of Nebraska-Lincoln students the RIAA caught illegally downloading music.
The association caught her at Harper Residence Hall using her computer IP address and asked UNL officials to e-mail Barg a pre-litigation letter in March.
The sophomore advertising major had to borrow $3,000 from her parents to pay off the RIAA.
Barg said she wasn't even a frequent downloader.
"I wouldn't download for like a month, and then in one night I would download like 20 songs," she said. "I went in spurts."
The e-mail letter - which was part of a second wave of such letters that hit UNL - arrived on March 22.
It was a Thursday afternoon. Barg had just returned from her microeconomics class. She checked her Facebook account. Then her e-mail. Her inbox contained an e-mail titled "UNL Notification of copyright complaint by RIAA."
She almost deleted it, thinking it was just another junk mail notification from the university. But she said she opened it out of curiosity.
This wasn't just an announcement from UNL - it was a pre-litigation letter. The RIAA accused Barg of illegally downloading 381 songs from Ares, one of the many peer-to-peer downloading software available on the Internet.
It was music she wasn't exactly proud of: hit songs from the 1990s, a little country, pop and some rap.
It was the type of music usually found on a "Now That's What I Call Music" compilation albums: Journey. Christina Aguilera. The Spice Girls. Britney Spears.
"Honestly," Barg said, "none of it was downloaded for pure enjoyment (of music)."
Obviously, she said, these songs were downloaded purely for goofing around with her friends and her roommate. She actually pays for music she likes - such as Justin Timberlake.
After reading the threatening e-mail, Barg immediately called UNL Student Legal Services. At that point, she just wanted to make sure the e-mail was real.
She set up an appointment with the secretary and hung up.
"I was thinking there was no way (the RIAA) would make me pay," she said.
Ten minutes later, student legal services attorney Tom Keef called her back.
Keef is the one who broke the news to her: Yes, the letter was real. Yes, the RIAA expected her to pay up. And yes, she should stop by first thing in the next morning to discuss her options.
That was when reality set in.
"I called my parents. I freaked out and cried all day and all night," she said. "When I went in the next morning, I couldn't even talk to (Keef). I was so scared. I couldn't stop crying."
Barg doesn't get in trouble.
She is the type of college kid who only misses one class a year, never misses work, always does her homework and goes to bed by 10:30 pm.
"I didn't know who to talk to because the university is so big," she said. "I'm only one kid out of 20,000 students."
The next worry was money - where would she find $3,000? There was no way she could afford that kind of money in addition to her student loans. She couldn't handle another job on top of studying and working at the College of Business Administration.
She thought, "How am I supposed to go to school here next semester?"
Luckily for Barg, her parents stepped in and scrounged up the cash.
"My parents were really cool about it, actually," she said. "They know parents download, kids download, everyone they know downloads. They know everyone here does it. My grandma even downloads."
With money in hand, Barg decided to settle with the RIAA rather than risk paying more for lawyer and court costs.
Student Legal Services has advised UNL students choosing to settle with the RIAA to do so on a public computer and with an unrelated credit card number in order to preserve their identity from the RIAA.
But Barg called the RIAA to arrange to pay the settlement. The woman she talked to pulled up her case and knew her first name from her Ares account, then asked for her full name and address.
Barg refused at first but eventually gave her name and her parents' address, despite Student Legal Services' advice.
Now she just waits for the settlement papers to arrive and hopes there are no surprises.
"I'm trusting them," she said.
But Barg is still upset - at the RIAA for punishing her and at university officials for their compliance and lack of support.
"I just think the university should take a stand," Barg said. "I would at least like to know they are behind me, supporting me … I think the university rolled over."
But UNL spokeswoman Kelly Bartling said the university can't ignore illegal practices.
"The university has a responsibility to comply," she said. "It's difficult at times to figure out what is the right thing, especially in an issue as complex and polarized as this one is."
Still, Barg said the university should build awareness of the issue on campus, rather than assume students are informed.
Officials could also set up a meeting for students who have or might settle with the RIAA.
"It would have been nice if they would have gone above and beyond what they are obligated to do," she said.
If Barg's settlement goes through as planned, she will have paid the equivalent of $7.87 per song.
She plans to keep those songs - even if they aren't quite hip - and get her money's worth of listening time.
Although she doesn't plan to illegally download music ever again, she does plan to continue breaking copyright laws by burning CDs from her friends' computers and iPods.
"If I knew it was safe I would continue (to download)," she said. "I would almost do it in spite of them now."
