Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sharing

We're currently entertaining friends of the family from the States. The kids are constantly on my computer enthusiastically downloading music and movies on their ipods. They say using programs like Kazaa in the States is illegal, so they're making use of the program here, while they can. Not a lot of artists make their music free on networks. And if you're caught by the Recording Industry Association of America, a letter will be sent to your doorstep warning of civil and/or criminal penalties.

True, my computer has programs that make use of peer-to-peer file-sharing. It's a way to connect to other users by sharing files stored in each computer. The software downloads files from other people's computers and makes available files from mine. This presents a problem of copyright infringement, specifically the right of the producer to reproduce the body of work. Like anything done online, file-sharing can be traced. Once you make your files available to others, organizations protecting the rights of artists can see those files.

Knowing this, I let them download to their heart's content. After all, the little anarchist in me has always believed art should be shared.


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