Illegal file swapping of music, movies and other media through downloading (Peer-to-Peer Networking)

Since 1999, when Shaun Fanning announced the development of Napster, the first file sharing system to offer users the ability to swap copyrighted material relatively anonymously, the issue of peer-to-peer networks has been a the center of a heated argument. The argument is between those who see this as a major threat to their incomes (movie and music companies) and those who see it as a new frontier in media distribution brought about by the Internet (users and lesser-known artists).

Because Napster's file sharing used Napster servers to index the media, the courts found the service in violation of copyright laws. However, true peer-to-peer services soon sprang up that had no central servers. Instead, each user's machine itself became a server or "node" on the network. Most such services began working in this fashion and most of them have run into legal issues, which they have overcome one by one until a recent Supreme Court decision.

Recently, in the US Supreme Court in the case MGM vs. Grokster, the court found that the file sharing service Grokster had violated copyright laws by implicitly endorsing the sharing of copyrighted music among its users. However, lower courts and several international courts have ruled that if the service does not openly endorse or encourage the swapping of copyright protected materials, the service itself cannot be held responsible for the ways users decide to use it.

The Supreme Court did not rule that the use of such software was illegal in itself, but instead focused on the issue of encouraging the illegal use of an otherwise legal file sharing service. According to some experts, the genie is out of the bottle and can never be returned, simply because file sharing has become easier and easier. There is no way to control every form of sharing which include not only the peer-to-peer networks, but also Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and other forms of instant messaging which allow for the direct transfer of any file from one user to another.

There have been numerous arguments that file swapping or file sharing has not harmed the music or movie industries. While movies do indeed seem to break previous box office records year after year, this past year it was noted that total movie attendance has dropped for the first time in two decades. Whether this is attributable to a lousy selection of films, changes in the economy, or file sharing remains to be seen, however, there was a decline in CD music sales between 2000 and 2003, although most industry sources agree that record sales have gone back to their previous and very profitable levels.

One downside to the use of peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, Limewire and others, is that they are the alleged carriers for a great many computer viruses, malware and spyware. Yet a user with a good security system can screen for these kinds of things and pretty much prevent infection or purchase versions of the software without adware or spyware attached.

This leads to another considerable disadvantage of the current peer-to-peer networks. The sharing of copyright protected material is illegal and remains illegal. Peer-to-peer networks are not entirely anonymous as evidenced by the thousands of successful lawsuits prosecuted by the record and movie industry. However, most users see they tend to seek penalties against those offering large libraries of copyrighted materials or users of the Internet II (offering large libraries as well), which allows the transfer of a 4 to 6 megabyte file (typical MP3 file size) in about one second. But for the typical file swapper, the risk of civil penalties seems minimal at best.

No doubt we will continue to see the major media developers and distributors seeking ways to force more and more people to pay for more and more of their products - and combating file sharing is a major aspect of this strategy, at least in the minds of many people in the music, television and movie industries. There has been talk of legislation requiring the use of technologies that would not allow unlicensed materials to be shared, but this seems to engender some major privacy issues and also brings up the users right to make copies of their own purchased product - a precedent set in the famous Betamax case of the 1970's.

Some media industry moguls have suggested they should be given the right to scan every Internet user's hard drives for illegal material, and to have the ability to erase that material at will. We tend to doubt that will happen, but it also goes to show you how concerned the issue of file swapping is for the media industry.

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