| File-sharing: File-sharing (also known as “peer to peer” technology) allows you to search for and copy files directly from the computers of others. The most common use of this technology is to swap digital music files (MP3s), movies and TV shows. |
Seventy-nine percent of Canadian students in Grades 10 and 11 download music on an average school day. (Source: The Young Canadians in a Wired World Survey, Media Awareness Network, 2005)
The Great News
File-sharing programs help you:
- collaborate on homework and projects from a distance
- become part of a global music community
- experience all kinds of music
- decide what songs you like before purchasing an entire CD
- create your own CD’s of your favourite songs
The Not-So-Great News
- Many of these programs offer easy access, even accidentally, to explicit images and videos.
- When you download file-sharing programs onto your computer, you may also be downloading additional software known as “spyware” Advertisers and pornographers use spyware to generate Web traffic on their sites.
- Many of these “peer to peer” programs offer access to chat rooms where kids end up talking with strangers.
- Any file-sharing programs that allow users to swap files (other than MP3s) can make your computer vulnerable to viruses.
- Users of file-sharing programs may be in violation of copyright law when they swap copyright-protected music, movies and TV shows.
Some Quick Facts
- A 2004 online survey by Pew Internet of 2,755 musicians and songwriters shows they are quite divided in their opinions about the impact of music file-sharing by Internet users. A third of artists surveyed say that file-sharing is simultaneously good for promotional purposes, but also bad because file-sharing circumvents payments to artists.
- According to a 2004 Ipsos-Reid study, almost 5.7 million Canadians have downloaded digital music files from peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa.
- A March 2004 study by Harvard University tracked music downloads and compared that data to retail sales of the same songs and albums. It found that even high levels of file swapping had no effect on sales.
- The Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA) says revenue losses of approximately $100 million annually due to file-sharing. In 2004, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed CRIA’s motion to force several Internet Service Providers to disclose the names of customers who traded music on the Internet.
| Cool Uses of File-Sharing Rip, mash and share – legally!
Some musicians are licensing their music specifically to exist in a P2P environment. Recently Wired Magazine created a CD with 16 tracks from such artists as Beastie Boys, Chuck D and My Morning Jacket. The license for each track permits noncommercial file-sharing and noncommercial sampling. Which means anyone can swap the songs on a peer-to-peer network as well as sample from them to make something fresh and then share that work, too. P2P: A more efficient way to share information than the Internet?
P2P's ability to distribute content efficiently has prompted a number of initiatives to establish legal P2P distribution services. LionShare, uses a file-sharing program to encourage the exchange of academic information around the world and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is looking at using P2P networks to distribute TV programs online. (Source: The Economist, December 2004)
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File-Sharing Guidelines
There are ways you can make file-sharing a positive experience.
Stick to copyright-cleared MP3s. If you want to avoid computer viruses, and stay on the right side of the law, stick to copyright-cleared MP3s. Most file-sharing programs let you choose what kind of files you can search for. Make sure you’re only searching for music files (MP3s) and not video or image files.
Use filtered file-sharing programs to avoid viruses and explicit materials. Some file-sharing programs have their own built-in filtering systems, so it pays to experiment with different types of file-sharing software to see which offer the most protection.
Only use your file-sharing program to exchange files. Many popular programs now include instant messaging and chat services along with the file-sharing function. Choose a program that doesn’t offer these services, or one that permits you to disable access to them.
Look out for “spyware” that’s included with some file-sharing programs. Spyware is software that comes bundled with some file-sharing programs. Spyware can change your home page setting, create pop-ups on your desktop and even add links to Web pages that weren’t there before.
Protect your computer. The types of viruses that are spread through file-sharing programs won’t work unless they are downloaded onto a computer and then “clicked” open. To be safe, if you don’t recognize the extension of a file, don’t open it!
Make sure that anti-virus software and firewalls are loaded on your computer for virus protection. When you set up your file-sharing program, set your preferences so other people can only access the files on your computer that you want them to have. (It’s a good idea to have an adult sit with you when you’re downloading and setting up the program.)
Is File-sharing Legal in Canada?
Under the Canadian Copyright Act, it is illegal to reproduce, authorize the reproduction of, distribute or "communicate to the public by telecommunication" a musical work in which copyright subsists, without the copyright holder's permission. Copyright automatically subsists in original musical works for the life of the artist + 50 years.
The Copyright Act contains a special exception for "private copying": it permits the copying of music files "onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy", but does not permit copying for the purpose of "distributing" or "communicating to the public by telecommunication" (s.80). It is generally accepted that downloading music for personal use is legal under this section. However, the record industry disputes this on the basis that a computer's hard drive does not constitute an "audio recording medium".
According to the Federal Court, in a decision issued March 31, 2004, neither downloading a song for personal use nor merely making that file available to others to download from your computer (without some more active sharing activity) amounts to infringement under Canadian copyright law. The court ruled that "the mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution" or "authorization of the reproduction of sound recordings" under the Copyright Act. However, this decision has been appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, so the issue remains in legal limbo.
(Source: Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, http://www.cippic.ca/en/faqs-resources/file-sharing/)
Think about it...
The recording industry claims that file-sharing doesn’t respect their copyright on recordings and is costing them money through lost revenue. - Is it ethical to download copyrighted music for free? Legally, you are only allowed to share MP3s that are copyright-cleared, yet every day, millions of people download and exchange MP3s without the permission of the artists or their recording company. Is this the same as stealing?
- What about the artists who created the work – should they be compensated? How might they be compensated when their music is swapped through file- sharing?
- CD sales in the U.S. rose by 2.3 per cent in 2004 (666 million sold) – the first rise in four years since an all-time high in 2000 of 785 million sold. Do you think the decline in sales is a result in illegal file-sharing?
- At the end of 2004, downloads using legal services like iTunes and the re-launced Napster reached a weekly high of 6.7 million tracks.
- In 2004, a total of 140 million digital tracks were legally downloaded, equivalent to 14 million albums (approximately 2 per cent of the overall album sales).
- Now that the recording companies are beginning to create their own Internet music services, do you think that people who have been downloading music for free are going to want to pay?
File-Sharing Work Sheet
1. What is the difference between exchanging files through a file-sharing program and downloading a program from the Internet?
2. List three ways to protect your computer from viruses when using a file-sharing program.
3. What’s spyware? How do you get it and how does it work?
4. Is it illegal to download and share music files in Canada?
5. List the pro and cons of music file-sharing for musical artists.
