2008 Woodie Awards
What you need to know about peer-to-peer file-sharing applications
Editorial
Issue date: 5/4/07 Section: Commentary
To the Editor:
Recently, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reportedly reached a settlement with 50 Ohio University students that asked them to pay $3,000 each to avoid Internet piracy lawsuits. As part of its ongoing copyright crackdown, the RIAA has already sued about 18,000 computer users nationwide since Sept. 2003. The figure includes 1,062 computer users at 130 universities. Currently, UNH students are receiving similar letters from the RIAA, in advance of legal action.
The association said last month that it intended to sue more students and others on campuses in the next three months than it has in the past three years, and that it would send 400 letters a month to computer users suspected of copyright infringement. (Source, USA Today, March 9, 2007).
Peer-to-peer (P2P) applications such as LimeWire, DC++, BearShare, Warez, Morpheus, BitTorrent, and iMesh make it easy for users to exchange files over the Internet. While these programs provide a way to share information, they are not entirely harmless and can cause serious issues for your personal system as well as the university network. Many of these programs perform aggressive network probing while looking for materials. Because these probes resemble computer worms, and because such probes are violation of the University's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), many P2P application users find their network access restricted.
This article provides information necessary to help avoid violating federal copyright law, or exposing your computer to malicious code or unacceptable use when using peer-to-peer applications.
Copyright Issues File-sharing applications make it easy for you to share music, videos, movies, software, text and other files. However, unless you have the explicit permission of the copyright owner to possess or distribute the material, you may be in violation of federal copyright law. It is best to assume that all material is copyrighted. Also know that most p2p programs set themselves up as servers when they are installed and run for the first time. Every time that you run the program, it acts as a server, sharing the files in the Shared folder where it downloads the files.
Recently, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reportedly reached a settlement with 50 Ohio University students that asked them to pay $3,000 each to avoid Internet piracy lawsuits. As part of its ongoing copyright crackdown, the RIAA has already sued about 18,000 computer users nationwide since Sept. 2003. The figure includes 1,062 computer users at 130 universities. Currently, UNH students are receiving similar letters from the RIAA, in advance of legal action.
The association said last month that it intended to sue more students and others on campuses in the next three months than it has in the past three years, and that it would send 400 letters a month to computer users suspected of copyright infringement. (Source, USA Today, March 9, 2007).
Peer-to-peer (P2P) applications such as LimeWire, DC++, BearShare, Warez, Morpheus, BitTorrent, and iMesh make it easy for users to exchange files over the Internet. While these programs provide a way to share information, they are not entirely harmless and can cause serious issues for your personal system as well as the university network. Many of these programs perform aggressive network probing while looking for materials. Because these probes resemble computer worms, and because such probes are violation of the University's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), many P2P application users find their network access restricted.
This article provides information necessary to help avoid violating federal copyright law, or exposing your computer to malicious code or unacceptable use when using peer-to-peer applications.
Copyright Issues File-sharing applications make it easy for you to share music, videos, movies, software, text and other files. However, unless you have the explicit permission of the copyright owner to possess or distribute the material, you may be in violation of federal copyright law. It is best to assume that all material is copyrighted. Also know that most p2p programs set themselves up as servers when they are installed and run for the first time. Every time that you run the program, it acts as a server, sharing the files in the Shared folder where it downloads the files.
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political forum
posted 6/19/07 @ 9:31 PM EST
First let me say that NO, I am not in any way affiliated with Napster. OK, that being said, buying CD's is a rip-off, especially when you only want to hear one or two songs off the album. (Continued…)
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