EUGENE, Ore. -- In just a few short years, music downloading has gone from an illicit act of piracy to a popular way to buy songs on the Internet.

But the war against piracy is far from over. A Eugene family is enduring this reality right now.

It started when the teenagers in the Perez family dabbled in downloading a few years ago.

A person downloads music clips from the Internet. (AP File Photo)

Their dad knew nothing about it.

"This is the scene of the crime," said Dave Perez, forcing a laugh at his home office desk. For this tech-fearing dad, the family computer is just way to get sports scores and e-mail.

But to his kids, the computer once served as a way to download songs illegally through a song-sharing web site.

Perez admits he's a complete novice at this kind of technology.

"I didn't even know you could do it," he said.

But Perez's lesson came quickly when two lawyers appeared at his front door to begin a legal deposition.

"And they asked me all these questions and I said, 'I don't know how to download or upload,' " he said.

"Ignorance is no excuse under the law when you engage in the theft of music you can be held accountable," said Jonathan Lamy, a representative from the Recording Industry Association of America.

The RIAA represents big-name record labels like Warner Brothers, Virgin Records and Sony. It's accusing Perez of stealing Top-40 songs like "MmmBop" by the band Hanson.

He was also stunned and intimidated when a settlement company called, asking him for $4,700 to avoid going to court.

Perez turned down the offer.

"If I called you up and said send me a check for $4,700 because you rammed into my car and you weren't even living in the same state I was, you wouldn't send me a check for $4,700."

Perez hired a lawyer and, so far, has racked up more than $20,000 defending himself.

Recently, the recording industry dropped its suit against Perez and began a new lawsuit against the rest of his family. Once again, the legal fees are mounting.

"We're looking at possibly selling the house," said Perez. Financially speaking, Perez admits he should've just taken the RIAA's settlement offer.

Morally, though, he is satisfied with his decision.

Lamy said the music industry has little sympathy.

"The music industry has laid off tens of thousands of people during the last three to four years precisely because of the illegal theft of music. So this is an industry that's hurting as well," Lamy said.

Goliath and Dave Perez will likely meet in court. Both sides hope this terrible situation provides a lesson to music consumers -and unsuspecting dads- across the nation.

The RIAA says despite the popularity of legal downloading services like iTunes and Rhapsody, piracy is still happening. This is especially true among college students.

The industry can learn the identity of an illegal downloader through a court subpoena sent to the their internet service provider. Since September, 2003, the recording industry has sued 18,200 people for music downloading. Five thousand, three hundred cases have been settled out of court.

Under federal law, the industry has the right to sue people for $750 per song.