1. Peer-to-peer file sharing software
2. Violation of Copyright Law
3. Reference
4. Related Links
1. Peer-to-peer file sharing software Recently
a new kind of "killer application",
i.e. peer-to-peer file sharing, has become very
popular in the Internet. This kind of software
forms the users of it into a virtual community
in which members can share digital contents between
each other.
This
kind of peer-to-peer file sharing software includes
Yaga, Morpheus, Kazaa, DocAtWeb and etc. Most
of them are available for free download when one
becomes their member. Many users installed them
for downloading or sharing documents, pictures,
video and audio.
While
the installation of this kind of software is almost
automatic, one has to be very careful and alert
of the so-call "default" settings of
the software. One of the default settings of these
software is that files one downloaded will become
shareable by other members. This setting seems
all right as far as there is no copyright concern
of the files. However, in case there is copyright
concern and one does not own it, allowing sharing
of the files is a violation of copyright law.
Top of page 2. Violation of Copyright Law
The
ITSC had handled a couple of cases in which our
users installed one of these software for searching
and downloading digital content from the Internet
but without knowing that the downloaded digital
content, which they do not own the copyright,
in their hard disks have automatically been made
downloadable by other users by the software.
Although
most of these users have no intention to make
provision of digital content that they do not
have copyright, the acts violated copyright law.
Under current HK laws, distributing copyrighted
materials to the general public without authorization
can be criminal, and people had been prosecuted
for serving such from their servers, for profits
or not.
If
you are not sure whether the material you downloaded
is copyrighted, it is prudent to configure your
software to disallow serving them out to the public
again.
The
ITSC would like to remind our staff and students
that whenever they install a software, they have
to know how it works. They should also read the
Terms of Service of the software very carefully
to spot for any legal obligation they are undertaking.
Top of page 3. References
The
ITSC is always ready to help in case you have
any doubts. Please send your enquiry through
ITSC
Electronic HelpDesk .
For
more information about peer-to-peer file sharing,
peer-to-peer computing or peer-to-peer content
networking solutions, please visit the following
sites:
Top of page 4. Related Links
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