SeatbeltEssay Preview: SeatbeltReport this essayDan MillerRoss O. WagnerEnglish 101-G708 June 2005Internet File Sharing and the Music IndustryImagine millions of songs accessible in one place. Today songs are just a few clicks away since the introduction of the internet and file sharing. File sharing is simply taking a file and allowing other internet users to download and use the file permanently. The accessibility and use of file sharing programs has devastated the music industry financially. The fact that almost every song recorded today is accessible through a free program encourages most consumers to download rather than buy. This is why illegal file sharing programs are driving the music industrys profits down.
The making of MP3s allows internet users to share and distribute songs quickly and easily. The letters MP are short for MPEG, which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group. The 3 stands for the third compression method that Dr. Karlkeinz Brandenburg, at the Frainhofer Institute, developed. “Ripping” or “Burning” is taking an original song or songs from a CD or other music source and compressing it to the small MP3 format. This method ingeniously removes all of the sounds and frequencies that the human ear cannot hear to eventually end up with a file that is about one tenth of the original size yet lack no noticeable quality (PC Complete 688-693). Now that the file is compressed, it is ready to do many new things that it could not do before. One of these is to be transferred over the internet. The conflict that arises from this is when people compress copyrighted music into the MP3 format and make it available to anyone on the internet (PC Complete 694). This is called “file sharing”, and it is a major topic of debate among the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), who seeks total control of its copyrighted material.
The most popular form of exchanging music on the internet is known as file sharing. File sharing occurs after the music has been converted to smaller MP3 format. The smaller format allows the files to be downloaded, transferred, or copied in just a matter of seconds. The most popular file sharing program until a couple of years ago was Napster. Napster was a file sharing program that essentially gave birth to the file sharing industry. A federal lawsuit was filed against Napster for copyright violation. The federal court ruled Napster must remove any copyrighted material that had previously been available. Other programs, such as Kazaa and Limewire, are currently running on the internet allowing copyrighted songs to be downloaded illegally. These programs, while convenient and easy to use, are causing the sales of music CDs and the music industrys profits to decrease
In 2005, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 2000, Section 53, was issued by the Copyright Office Act of 1996 to allow for the creation, enforcement, and maintenance of new versions of “copyright laws” to promote the downloading of certain kinds of copyrighted material. The U.S. Copyright Office Act of 2002 provides for a process for the collection of such copyrights at the copyright office. The Copyright Office Act also contains the “Protection for Free Expression,” which is a collection of guidelines, specifications, and guidelines that govern the protection of copyrighted works at home and abroad in a manner that protects those works not in the public domain. The Privacy Protection Act of 2003 provides that Internet companies may not take any actions that cause the infringement of copyright in a particular way, especially in certain areas where the Internet is not a major player.
For more information, see the online brochure, “Privacy and Civil Liberties of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Under the Copyright Act of 1970, U.S. Code. for example: “Copyright Protection: The U.S. Copyright Office Act of 2002.”
Read information about the Privacy Protection Act and the U.S. Public Interest Legal Center (PILOC), on this page.
Privacy Protections to Protect Your Digital Content: Privacy and Trade Controls
How should I protect my digital content without having a direct connection to a government in order to secure it?
As well as protecting privacy.
Privacy provides numerous security and security protections for us; and those protections should protect us.
Here are a few:
You should not collect, use, share, import, transmit, transfer or disclose information that is not protected by law, without permission from the person or entity that provided the data.
No state or local government or government agency has the authority to remove data from your computer or your mobile device or to remove personal data that is not within government controls.
No government entity or political subdivision of a person has the authority under its laws to make policy or establish privacy policies on matters of private citizens, businesses, corporations or individuals (collectively, the “privacy laws”).
For these reasons, the U.S. Trade Commission shall give the appropriate legal authorities to you on your questions and issues related to digital privacy.
When do I have to notify the U.S. Trade Commission of what it is doing to protect me?
Not only in the U.S., but worldwide. In general, as a rule of thumb, the FTC will not enforce a copyright or trade statute, or apply a privacy or regulatory measure, within the framework of an agency’s authority to prosecute or enforce a copyright or trade violation against a third party.
Generally, the rule does not apply to websites or social networking sites that are used to collect, store or otherwise process personal information (such as data stored on your Internet phone).
There are various legal mechanisms for reporting or defending against an alleged anti-copyright infringement action by the FTC or the U.S. Copyright Office in response to an alleged anti-copyright infringement action taken anonymously by a third-party for your own personal or business use.
The FTC has jurisdiction to enforce copyright and trade laws as well in any actions taken by other agencies including the IRS, the FTC’s Consumer Protection Authority, or the FTC for the protection of your personal data, and for actions taken by other copyright or trade authorities.