Use of the Internet as a Tool for Piracy

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Use of the Internet as a Tool for Piracy The internet is an ever increasingly powerful tool for finding everything from entertainment to reference to daily news. When first created, the internet was only a shadow of what it has become. Most people didn't even have a computer, let alone a connection to the internet. In the last decade, however, computers have become more and more affordable, and internet service providers have become far more widespread. According to the World Almanac and Book Of Facts 2001 "By early 2000, more than 300 million people around the world were using the Internet, and it is estimated that by 2005, 1 billion people may be connected" (World Almanac). As with any new, powerful technology, the internet has brought with its positive aspects, a number of new problems which will have to be dealt with in the next several years. One of the biggest controversies which has spawned from the popularity of the net is the piracy of music, software, and movies. In the past, piracy of music and movies was fairly small scale. The only way to make illegal copies of tapes was to dub them in a double tape deck. This process was slow enough that music companies and movie studios didn't really worry about it. With the advancement of technology, however, piracy has become as easy as burning a CD or downloading music from the internet. The ease with which people can get free copies of songs or movies, production companies have tried to crack down on piracy. Piracy is the copying of copyrighted material without permission from the author. Because technology is always changing, there are no fail safe methods of preventing piracy. Soon after a new preventative method comes out, someone finds a way around it, making pr... ... middle of paper ... ...reate key generators that produce a valid code. Hard as designers might try, they will never be able to make a totally hacker proof program. Piracy has been a problem for many years, and every time a new method of prevention is created, a new loophole is discovered. Piracy may be illegal, but because of ambiguous laws and the relative anonymity of downloading from the web, authorities will be hard pressed to ever crack down on individual bootleggers. No matter how hard people try to end piracy, there will always be people who want free music and movies and software badly enough to make copies and exchange it illegally. Napster. Napster Incorporated. September 20, 2001 . Selvin, Joel. “Did Napster Help Boost Record Sales.” The San Francisco Chronicle August 5, 2001. “The Internet and Computers: Internet Basics.” World Almanac and Book of Facts. 2000 ed.

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