File Sharing on the Internet
Want to see the latest box office movies? How about checking out the latest records by your favorite rock band? What if you feel like playing a game or reading a document or doing some research? Today, with the progress the Internet is making, this is all possible in your own home in your own PC. For people who know where to go, the Internet offers endless possibilities for finding entertainment. Perhaps the most controversial and intriguing thing on the Internet today is the idea of file sharing. File sharing programs are attracting millions of Internet users and are becoming more and more popular. These are programs that allow users to share the files on their computers whether it is music, movies, pornography, images, software, and documents. Anything can be downloaded free of charge if you have the right equipment and the right set of mind.
The first of these programs was Napster, a music sharing utility where users can connect to each other and download songs from each other. It was the first successful file sharing program and it became very popular with millions of users logging on each day and downloading huge amounts of music. Due to that success the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) filed a lawsuit against Napster and almost shut it down on basis of copyright infringement.
New programs came up recently that allow not only music to be shared but also full-length movies and many other files. These programs have become very popular and a special effort has been made to ensure they are not shut down by setting their servers overseas, where American copyright laws don’t apply. In order to be able to share files you need a computer an Internet connection and a lot of free time. ...
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...the data on your computer. You can avoid these safety hazards by not opening any files before checking them with anti-virus software and not let anybody use the file sharing application without your guidance. You should always know what you are downloading. These file sharing application have search capabilities for objectionable material and porn is very pervasive on all the programs. So its not one for the kids then…
Despite these shortcomings, file sharing is very popular right now and is getting a lot of attention from people all over the world. It’s and interesting way to get information, entertainment and basically any file you can think of. With more and more people logging on every day, it can only get bigger and harder to control. So if you plan on hearing good music and seeing movies in the comfort of your own home, be conscious be safe and happy sharing.
The last few years has seen an explosion in the use of the Internet as a means for exchanging, free of charge, digital media by way of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing technologies. Initially, the practice was primarily limited to the swapping of music, in the form of MP3 files. The pervasiveness of broadband, the advent of newer file types, and the creation of more sophisticated technologies has subsequently made possible the exchange of other types as well – including movies, television shows and software. Again, for free.
For some time now companies, copyright owners and Congress have tried to develop a security standard to protect copyrighted works from unauthorized reproduction and distribution, but they have not yet found a thoroughly effective solution. They know that shutting down all P2P networks is not the right response since file sharing is valuable to some extent since its method of sharing and transferring information supports a variety of efficient business models. Instead they want to deal with the copyright infringements that P2P networks facilitate.
...ed “torrenting”. When something is “torrented”, it is spread across multiple computers in hundred of fragments. After someone has there “torrenting” software setup properly it tracks the fragments, downloads them, and re-assembles them into a duplicate of the original file. Torrenting is most common because it provides a degree of anonymity too music sharing, it is safety in numbers.
The Internet, by making free and non-free online distribution of music, has profoundly affected how business is conducted in the record industry in terms of distribution channels, copyright and the economic structure of the major players in the global market. Initially, the Internet was viewed as an opportunity by some of the major players as a new channel of promotion. However, after the existence of Napster and few others, the majority considered it as threat because of the increase in the free file sharing. Consequently, for the Internet to be an opportunity for the major players, they had to adopt new business model in terms of distribution for online customers while keeping their conventional distribution channels. Early response to this threat was searching for technological solution in order to prevent piracy, going to court to sue for copyright infringement, the five major players and others offered their own authorized online distribution joint venture, all in attempt to keep their power in the market.
Napster, a free online file sharing network, allowed peers to share digital files directly with each other by way of connections through its software and system. The no cost peer-to-peer sharing gained popularity, particularly with trendy music. A&M Records took notice of all the free digital music downloads and brought suit against Napster for direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringements (Washington University School of Law, 2013).
Amy Harmon and John Schwartz’s article, “The Problem With Sharing”, published in the November 17 issue of New York Times Upfront, discusses problems with downloading files from the Internet.
The world music industry revenue is cut by 50% in the last 20 years, respecting to piracy, illegal file sharing, legal download such as iTunes service and streaming services (McDoling , 2015). Generally, the internet might be the biggest problem to the music industry ,if the music business didn 't know how to deal with it. P2P is a part of the issue, since it has caused a high drop in music sale. However, it sounds that the music industry has been gaining a big victory in US over file-sharing. By comparing the number of the targeted IP address accounts lawsuits 43,124 ISP in 2010 to the 6700 IP in 2015, we conclude a remarkable decrease in music piracy (A, 2016). The current cooperation among the music industry and the new music streaming services (Spotify) which allow a legal cheap access to copyright musics announces a new music business
With websites such as youtube.com, facebook.com and instargram.com, people have been able to share more with each other than ever before. Scenes from movies, music clips and other copyrighted materials are being shared every day. We saw it once in 2012 when the US government tried to pass two new acts. Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act.
According to the text A Gift of Fire, Napster “opened on the Web in 1999 as a service that allowed its users to copy songs in MP3 files from the hard disks of other users” (Baase, 2013, p. 192, Section 4.1.6 Sharing Music: The Napster Case). Napster was, however, “copying and distributing most of the songs they traded without authorization” (A Gift of Fire, Section 4.1.6 Sharing Music: The Napster Case). This unauthorized file sharing resulted in a lawsuit - “eighteen record companies sued for contributory infringement claiming that Napster users were blatantly infringing copyrights by digitally reproducing and distributing music without a license” (Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints and the Modern Media, 2011, p. 359).
Peer-to-peer is a communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session. Other models with which it might be contrasted include the client/server model and the master/slave model. In some cases, peer-to-peer communications is implemented by giving each communication node both server and client capabilities. In recent usage, peer-to-peer has come to describe applications in which users can use the Internet to exchange files with each other directly or through a mediating server.
The first online peer to peer file-sharing application was Napster. Napster allowed people to copy music from their CDs onto their computers in mp3 format. They then allowed other members of Napster to download these songs onto their computers. Once this caught on, millions of people were downloading thousands of songs a day. And as you can imagine, this did not make the record companies happy with the idea that people were getting their music for free instead of buying the CD. It also caused a problem with some of the recording artists. Most notably Metallica.
Although online file sharing debuted in 1999, lawmakers and copyright industries are just beginning to address the myriad questions the practice has generated. In At Issue: Internet Piracy, authors attempt to answer some of those questions.
With the popularity of the Internet, sales for CDs, DVDs, Movies, and many other products have increased. Along with the increase of sales has brought forth an ever increasing problem of illegal media being downloaded. Programs such as Bittorent, Kazaa, and other direct-connect networking programs have allowed the transferring of such illegal media. Downloading song files from the Internet over a free peer to peer network is the moral equivalent of shoplifting music CDs from the local mall.
All around the world people connected to the internet are downloading free digital content through P2P file sharing software.
At the dawn of the internet, many things such as books and text became obsolete, due to insufficient monitoring of internet activity and sites. Individuals were able to gain free access to books and publications that normally needed to be bought, or required a fee. This is something that has caused problems for booksellers and publishers. Now, as technology advances, it also begins the decline of music, software, and television industries—but something can be done before it’s too late. Illegal downloading is a problem that affects us all, either directly or indirectly. Many people do not take it too seriously. They have not realized that it is an epidemic; like a disease that keeps growing as people become more knowledgeable about computers and learn more about how software runs. People openly burn music CDs and download music and movies for friends who in turn give it to their friends; it’s a never-ending cycle on illegal practices. The problem started when Napster came out and should have ended when it was shutdown. Unfortunately, not enough has been done to stop the illegal transfer of files. It’s time someone takes full action and ends this detrimental offense.