How do you Know which Computer Files are Legal to Share?
And while most works published in the United States before 1923 are now in the public domain, it can be difficult to determine whether the copyright has been renewed on later works. As a general rule, assume that any recent creation -- and certainly any current song, movie or TV series -- is still under copyright and is therefore not in the public domain. The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that maintains an Internet library of works in the public domain, including movies, texts, audio files and software programs. And works created under a sharing license such as Creative Commons or the GNU General Public License can be shared legally under the conditions specified by the creator of the work. In most cases, the answer is no. After all, if you've ever accessed a spreadsheet on your office network, worked on a shared document in Google Docs, or posted your vacation photos to an online album for your friends and family to enjoy, you've engaged in file sharing. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to tell whether a file meets the above criteria. A rtic le was cre at ed with GSA Cont en t Generator DEMO .
How can you tell if a file is legal or illegal to share? Meanwhile, the example-making damages sought and the never-ending court appeals tell me that when it comes to finding a balance between the rights of artists and the interests of music fans, our copyright laws haven't yet caught up with our technology. If you create a work and you still hold the copyright for that material (i.e., you have not signed over the copyright to an employer or agency), you may of course choose to share it as you wish. But if another Web site reproduces the licensed work without giving the required credit, you may download it without realizing that the site where you found the file is not the original source. You can also go directly to the Web site of a musician or television network to see if the song or program you're looking for is available there. But let's say you can't find what you're looking for through any legal channels, or you don't want to pay for the music you download. I still pay for any music I download, maybe because I've known a lot of talented and starving musicians, and I believe that illegal file sharing takes money from their pockets.
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File sharing sites like Napster, Kazaa and Megaupload quickly caught the attention of the RIAA and MPAA, who blame illegal file sharing for hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue within the music and movie industries. The juries in both Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum and RIAA v. Thomas-Rassett took that number to heart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) maintains a list of legal music sites like Pandora and Rhapsody that let you find and listen to copyrighted songs, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) maintains a similar list of movie and video streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu. Electronic Frontier Foundation. "RIAA v. The People: Five Years Later." Sept. What will the next 25 years bring? Copyright law still prevents you from sharing or redistributing the file without the copyright owner's express permission, but in many cases you will be able to stream or download the content legally -- and for free. Article was cre ated by G SA C on tent Generator D emoversi on .
It will be fascinating to find out. To find out more about legal and illegal file sharing, check out the links on the next page. Both cases are currently under appeal, but thousands of others have been settled out of court, with accused file sharers paying up to avoid legal fees or drawn-out court battles. Of course, it wasn't actually called file sharing back then. Better yet, that content is readily available for free through popular file sharing Web sites and software programs. In the days before the Internet, file sharing was pretty straightforward. In the decade and a half since file sharing has gone digital, all that has changed. When you bypass iTunes, Amazon, Netflix or HBO and instead, get your music, movies and premium television shows for free through a file sharing program, you deprive artists and copyright holders of royalty payments that they would normally earn. U.S. Copyright Office. "Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright." (Aug. 15, 2012) http://www.copyright.
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