File Sharing
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Years after we all followed the lawsuit against Napster, the online music trading giant, the file sharing fight still continues. The issue isn't just about music anymore, the entertainment industry is now fighting to protect movies and television shows too.
"File sharing" is the online trading of media, without the actual purchase of the copyrighted material. Downloading music, movies, games, or software from the Internet without paying, and sharing them without the appropriate permission is considered a breach of copyright laws.
When a file-sharing program has custody of your music, anyone can access it and download a copy. This makes you a distributor of copyrighted materials. Under the law, this is illegal unless you have permission from the copyright holder to distribute the materials.
The Music Industry Association has commissioned the building of locator bots, which are used to monitor such activities by scanning various IP addresses to see whether any common file-sharing programs are active on a port. The bot then asks the program whether it has a particular file. If the program answers positively, the bot reports the IP address and title to the proper authorities, who send out violation notices...