It seems that I’ve opted out of illegal file-sharing just in time, as the RIAA has sent out nearly one thousand subpoenas over the last four weeks to people suspected of illegally sharing music over the Internet.

“They could have used some other way to inform people than scaring the bejiminy out of them,” said a mother who received a copy of the subpoena last Wednesday, listing several songs that her 14-year-old son had made available for others to copy from his computer. “If someone had sent me a letter saying `this is wrong,’ you can bet your sweet potatoes that would have gotten my attention. This just seems so drastic.”

Of course, I’d probably be downloading music illegally if there were any reliable way to do it on a Mac. After Audiogalaxy expired last summer, the options left were grim. If a program actually worked, it didn’t ever find anything worth downloading, it seemed. So it’s been CD ripping and Emusic for me ever since. Luckily, too — at $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted song, I couldn’t afford the fines. Still, $20 per CD seems outrageous, too, and until that changes, well, I’ll be exploring my options elsewhere.