Are they still sue ing people for illegally downloading music?

Copyright infringement can be CRIMINAL (which could, but really isn't likely to mean, jail time) and CIVIL (about money). There's no such thing as "debtor's prison," so you don't to jail just because you can't pay a judgment, but a civil judgment can still screw up your credit rating and may you a target for collection for the many years that a judgment is executable. It's 2014, by the way, not 2013, and the RIAA still includes lawsuits among their anti-piracy efforts but there's much greater focus on education and offering legal digital music buying, which increases every year. That doesn't mean that illegally downloading music (or movies, or anything else anyone else owns) is something you should do. Getting caught and prosecuted has huge consequences, and the bigger the scale you dot his on, the more likely it is you'll be sued, but even small violations can be used as an example for others, so don't be in a position to be sued civilly or arrested criminally and you won't need to worry about it.

Yes, still suing and it's illegal. If "they" (copyright owner) sue and you can't pay "they" (the copyright owners) get a judgment that hangs over your head for years, and likely jeopardize your future employment.. The copyright owner can't lock you up. Imprisonment is up to a different "they", a Federal prosecutor and judge, who aren't typically involved unless it is massive downloading that has a significant defect on the US economy. I doubt you do. My guess is you are just a small time scared little slime, frankly speaking.

Attorney Burdick is, for the most part, wrong. I represented "Jane Doe," the first person targeted by the RIAA for music file-sharing back in 2003. Back then the dispute was still over how to properly identify the file-sharers. The RIAA lobbyists wrote a provision into copyright law allowing the identificaton to proceed with a Section 512(h) subpoena. As a result of the Verizon / Jane Doe lawsuit, the RIAA was forced to change its tactics because the subpoena provision was ruled unconstitutional. So instead of issuing subpoenas to identify file-sharers the RIAA [or, more accurately, its record label members] began filing copyright infringement suits against file-sharers and over the next six years sued about 100,000 people. In 2010, the RIAA announced it would stop suing individual file sharers and, for the most part, has, in fact, stopped. One of the legal issues brought to the fore by these lawsuits is whether simply "making available" a song file for others to download is an infringement of the copyright owner's distribution right. That question has not been settled as a matter of civil copyright law [though it is part of criminal copyright law]. What is NOT -- and has never been -- disputed is that DOWNLOADING a song file is copyright infringement absent a license from the copyright owner. Do the owners of song copyrights still sue downloaders? Maybe a few. But the RIAA jihad against file sharers is over. Bottom line: DO NOT download music that you have not paid for. It's unlawful and, much of the time, hurts the artists and related folks who make the music. Yes, you can be sued. But, no, law enforcement does not pursue music downloaders so your risk of arrest is very, very, very remote. Music is so very inexpensive nowadays [unlike in 2003] that anyone who choses not to pay will not have me as their attorney.