Because the service academies adhere to an honor code. Cadets and Midshipmen do not lie, cheat , or steal, or tolerate those that do. Controversial as this may be, Mids and Cadets know the rules, and know very well the consequences of violations. If they can not live by the rules honorably in this situation, they can not be entrusted with the lives of troops or national assets in positions of higher responsibility. Sorry for them, but the institution is a stake and it is worth far more than the education of a few students with no more to do with the taxpayers money than download music.
USNA84
I have racks of music CD's in my office, of which many have been ripped to my office PC so I can create playlists from them. The symphonies stay on the CD's. Shorter pieces are ripped.
All of these practices are not merely legal, but encouraged by the copyright holders. I do not expect, however, that Naval Academy administrators are capable of such fine distinctions, and do expect that they will blast the incipient careers of many innocent cadets.
This is not an area for criminal sanctions. The Navy risks alienating prospective techies and pointing them towards the Air Force instead.
I have personal knowledge that this is already happening. My daughter's boyfriend Willie is entering the Air Force after Christmas and told me that the Navy has a reputation for cluelessness among geeks. The administration of my town's high school was terrified when Willie graduated last year, for fear of losing his services, and offered him $2500 a month for a year as a consultant to keep on doing for them what he did as a student, and train a better-paid replacement, before joining the service. Willie wouldn't let the Navy recruiter in the door.
Willie has every episode of Pinky and the Brain in German on DVD. He says it's funnier in German. I like him.