What is the Big Deal with File Sharing?

What is the Big Deal with File Sharing?

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has declared war on several Internet users and Internet Service Providers. The issue is the right to copy or share copyrighted materials, including songs, pictures and movies. I will explain file sharing, present legal file sharing and then discuss the controversial file sharing here.

Here's How File Sharing Works. Let's suppose I wanted to share my essay "Who Owns Your Software?" that appears at http://cameronparkcomputer.com/software.htm and has appeared in the El Dorado Hills Village Life. I could create an account with a file sharing service such as Kazaa, Bearshare or Limewire, place that MS Word document in my Shared Files folder and let anyone interested copy that file from my machine to theirs.

Here's how it would be legal. If the owner (s) (both the El Dorado Hills Village Life and the author) are fine with anybody sharing and copying the file at will, then this would be legal. Nobody would claim copyright infringement. Nobody would file lawsuits. Nobody would get sued.

Here's how it would be illegal. Suppose that either owner copyrighted the file. Anyone copying it without the expressed consent of the owner would be in violation of the copyright. In this example, if either the El Dorado Hills Village Life or the author copyrighted the file and wanted to protect that copyright, they could view any file sharing or copying as a copyright infringement and call a lawyer.

Let's go one step further and discuss this matter with copyrighted music. A random user creates an account with a file sharing service such as Kazaa and decides to share an electronic version of Shania Twain's Still The One, on Come on Over on Mercury Records. The RIAA contends that since Shania Twain and Mercury Records are members of the RIAA, the RIAA defends the copyrights of her songs. Anybody who wants to share or copy any of these songs needs the expressed consent of both Shania Twain and Mercury Records. Those who don't receive that consent are copyright violators.

The RIAA is going after file sharers through their ISPs. The RIAA has subpoenaed several ISPs including Earthlink, Comcast and SBC for the names, addresses and IP addresses of their subscribers. After securing that info, the RIAA will cross reference those records with those from file sharing services to determine who is sharing copyrighted files and where the file sharers live. From that point on, the file sharers themselves can expect Cease and Desist letters or subpoenas.

II am encouraging clients to uninstall their file sharing applications or at least disable sharing files from their computers. Nuf said…