Andrew Frowen offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print. Feel free to use this article in your newsletter, website, ezine, blog, or forum. ----------- PUBLICATION GUIDELINES - You have permission to publish this article for free providing the "About the Author" box is included in its entirety. - Do not post/reprint this article in any site or publication that contains hate, violence, porn, warez, or supports illegal activity. - Do not use this article in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act. If sent by email, this article must be delivered to opt-in subscribers only. - If you publish this article in a format that supports linking, please ensure that all URLs and email addresses are active links. - Please send a copy of the publication, or an email indicating the URL to [email protected] - Article Marketer (www.ArticleMarketer.com) has distributed this article on behalf of the author. Article Marketer does not own this article, please respect the author's copyright and publication guidelines. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this article. ----------- Article Title: 'Pirate Bay' And The Legal Implications For Those Facilitating File-Sharing Author: Andrew Frowen Category: Security, Information Technology Word Count: 474 Keywords: computer forensics, file-sharing, peer-to-peer, P2P, pirate bay, illegal downloading Author's Email Address: [email protected] Article Source: http://www.articlemarketer.com ------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------
Over recent years, as home internet connections have become commonplace and the average download speed has increased exponentially, the unauthorised sharing of copyrighted music and video files has become increasingly popular. In fact, recent reports estimate that six million people regularly file-share copyright content without permission. The music and film industries have tried largely in vain to prosecute those who drive such activity, but April 2009 saw the successful conviction of a key player in the file-sharing industry - an outcome that could have significant implications for the future of file-sharing. The four owners of The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, were convicted in their native Sweden of breaking copyright law. They were sentenced to one year's imprisonment and ordered to pay damages amounting to $4.5m (approximately 3 million GBP). Before the conviction, it had widely been thought that the people behind sites like TPB could not be prosecuted because although they facilitate illegal downloading by providing an index of file locations, no unauthorised content is stored on their servers. When file-sharing first became popular, files were generally stored on large central servers and users all connected to that server in order to download files. However, with the advent of BitTorrent protocol, direct file-sharing between users, known as peer-to-peer (P2P), became possible without the need for a central server. Instead, sites such as TPB simply index the location of the files on each participating individual's computer. Users are then able to download popular files very quickly because specially designed P2P software allows them to connect to multiple users, each providing a small chunk of the same file. The recent court case, which included testimony from computer forensic experts, established that the facilitation of file-sharing can, in itself, be considered a crime. Speaking on Swedish Radio after the TPB conviction, assistant judge Klarius said: "The court first tried whether there was any question of breach of copyright by the file-sharing application and that has been proved, that the offence was committed. The court then moved on to look at those who acted as a team to operate the Pirate Bay file-sharing service, and the court found that they knew that material which was protected by copyright but continued to operate the service." With this ruling, then, comes the implication that other file-sharing site owners, and perhaps even P2P software developers could be convicted of breach of copyright. Indeed, there have even been arguments put forward that search engine giant Google could be prosecuted, since it provides links to copyrighted material that has been uploaded without authorisation. But critics argue that such efforts on the part of law enforcement officials would prove fruitless, since new file-sharing websites would simply pop up in place of the old ones. For now, it seems that the creative industries have won the battle, but the war is still going strong. IntaForensics a BS EN ISO 9001:2000 registered firm providing Computer Forensics, Expert Witness, Mobile Phone Forensics, and Forensic Data Recovery to the Legal Sector, Police Forces, Local Authorities and Commercial organisations internationally. Visit http://www.intaforensics.com. ------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
