Is it ok to use a peer-to-peer service legally to download files that aren protected by copyright?
Many music, games, and videos downloaded through file-sharing programs fall into the category of copyright infringement. That is, the users downloading the files do not have the permission of the copyright owner. In addition, peer-to-peer file-sharing programs do not determine whether requests for media files are requests for copyright-licensed or freely-sharable materials. This means that if you copy music to your computer from a CD you purchased and are signed on to a peer-to-peer service with file-sharing enabled, you are making the copyrighted music you purchased available to others. YOU are distributing copyrighted material and the copyright ownere can hold you liable for a copyright violation. Copyright owners frequently hire agents to scan university networks for copyrighted materials that are available to others from computer systems on the UB network. UB receives many notices from these organizations alleging copyright infringement. They focus on college campuses because of th
