Michael Zlonkevicz's List: T4A Position Paper

• In peer-to-peer sharing, you use a software program (rather than your Web browser) to locate computers that have the file you want.

  • Un-monitored computers run the show

• The act of file sharing itself is not illegal and peer-to-peer networks are also used for legitimate purposes

• When you make unauthorized copies of someone’s creative work, you are taking something of value from the owner without his or her permission.
• Criminal charges may leave you with a felony record, accompanied by up to five years of jail time and fines up to $250,000.
• U.S. copyright law does in fact provide full protection of sound recordings, whether they exist in the form of physical CD’s or digital files.  Regardless of the format at issue, the same basic principal applies:  music sound recordings may not be copied or distributed without the permission of the owner.

  • No matter what format the music is in, Physical or digital, copying and distributing music without the proper licensing is against the law.
• • Criminal penalties for first-time offenders can be as high as five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
   
  • Civil penalties can run into many thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees. The minimum penalty is $750 per song.

  • Consequences of pirating through file sharing

2 more annotations...

• • Fact:  More than a 
    quarter of internet users globally (28 per cent) access unauthorised 
    services on a monthly basis, according to IFPI/Nielsen. 

• • Fact: Music Industry holds Peer to Peer file sharing systems responsible for 25% decline is music sales after 1999
• • Fact: Sales from 1990 to 2008, decline, corresponded with rise of Napster.

• commissioned by the MPAA, Sanchez shows that a better guess for the cost of movie piracy in the U.S. would be something like $446 million.

  • Effect of Piracy on Movie Industry

• As a consequence, Napster completely shut down its whole network in July 2001 to fully abide by the court injunction

  • The fall of the first major p2p file sharing service.