Legal Issues with File-Sharing

File sharing is legal?

File sharing, in and of itself, is no more illegal than using email. It's just a tool, and like any tool, can be used for good or evil.

Unfortunately, most of the media attention tends to focus on it's main illegal uses: sharing music, movies and software without permission from the copyright holders.

Why is it such a big deal?

It's all a matter of control over something called "property rights". The movie industry doesn't like you downloading a movie from a file-sharing service for two reasons:

1) Since they own the copyright to the movie, they have the right to control the conditions under which it may or may not be watched.

2) When you download a movie, they don't make money that they otherwise would have if you had rented or bought that movie.

The same holds true for music and software. The music, movie and software industries take the stance that downloading their properties via file-sharing is the equivalent of theft, while others take the view that it isn't, since you haven't "stolen" anything, but merely made a digital copy. However, depending in which country you live, you may or may not be breaking the law by downloading commercially available movies, music or software, but you almost certainly would be breaking the law by allowing other people to download them from you, which is typically what happens when you use a file-sharing application.

Can't I just download without uploading?

Well, to some extent, you can, but if everyone did that, there wouldn't be anything to download. In addition, most of the file-sharing application operate under the principle that you're going to be sharing whatever you're downloading, and if you don't share, your download speed gets severely limited.

How do they know who I am?

It's pretty simple really. They purposely share some files from computers that they monitor, and when you download from them, they can tell what your IP address is (an IP address is a unique set of numbers that identifies your computer on the internet). They then subpoena your ISP for their records which show which customer was using that IP address. Some ISPs refuse to divulge that information and fight back in court, and some just give in.

Anything we're missing? Let us know.

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