File sharing and the courts
4 April 2005
by Richard Conan-Davies
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File sharing has been in the news recently due to a court case between some of the major record companies and software developers that allow sharing of music. Sometimes called P2P which means peer-2-peer the software allows people to easily share their music ( and video files) over the internet. Often the files are commercial recordings. The argument goes something like this: The software makers are responsible for creating a product that easily allows people to share music. In essence people don't have to buy the music they listen to. The record industry lawyers say the software developers must pay up big. The software developer lawyers say that it's nothing to do with them because people who use the software know they don’t have permission to share the files. The software lawyers are using an argument about the development of a video recorder called betamax back in the eighties which allows people to record things which itself is breaking a copyright law. |
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