Download for FREE

In the digital age, people are increasingly searching for free information on the internet. File-sharing has become one of the most frequent activities people involve themselves in whilst surfing the web. There are sites like Napstar, Kazaa, Limewire and others of the like, that came about to provide free music to the online community. Even though Napstar and Kazaa have both since then been changed to suit copyright laws, Limewire still exists as a free mp3 file sharing program. It is not only music is being shared online. Download.com is a great site that allows you to find free programs or access limited licenses for programs. There are other websites that do the same thing, such as tucows.com. For the purpose of this blog I would like to focus on copyright. This includes the music file-sharing programs and the issue of pirating programs illegally to distribute to the community.

The file-sharing format comes about from the idea that the internet should be kept free and open. There is also belief that once you have purchased a CD or any other type of media, you have the right to distribute it as long as you are not profiting financially from it (Harries, D. 2002. p87). The reason that the corporate controls are maddened by this file-sharing operation is the money that isn’t being spent by those who are downloading for free. Years ago if you found an artist that you wanted to listen to, you would go to the record store and find the album and buy it. These days you are able to search for particular songs that you like, and download them for free to listen to on your computer, or burn to a disc to listen to anywhere.

Napstar was an online music file-sharing program that operated between 1999 and 2001 when it was accused of major copyright violations. Napster still exists but you now have to pay for the download of songs. Kazaa also had problems with copyright infringement and now only allows access to non-copyrighted material. So how do programs like Limewire get away with presenting this material? They are a few loopholes in the laws that govern this type of activity. Limewire tell you that you shouldn’t download files that aren’t from a accredited source, but it allows you to make that decision yourself. You are the one responsible for the infringement, if they tell you not to do it in the first place.

Copyright infringement is not only in relation to music sharing. You can download programs as well. Sometimes these programs that you might download aren’t the real thing. Torrent sites such as Isohunt.com allow you to download torrent files to your computer that provide the particular program you are searching for. You can download movies, games, television shows, and applications from these sites and download them for free. In these days, it is more difficult to tell the difference between a copy and an original. These programs that you find to download are often pirated. Software piracy is the ‘unauthorised copying, reproduction, use or manufacture of software products’ (Harries, D. 2002. p85). It is said that for every authorised copy of software there is at least one unauthorised ‘pirated’ copy that is made (ibid).

To sum up, copyright infringement is a never-ending issue for internet users. It is becoming harder and harder for the big companies to be able to bring down the people that are either downloading or creating these files. The quality of reproduced media is no longer something that is lessened in quality.

References:

Harries, D. ed. 2002. The New Media Book. London: British Film Institute