Ome Cano

Week 5

• Kyle Tipsword - Maine College Students Can't Escape File-Sharing Suit

  http://news.lp.findlaw.com/andrews/bt/int/20080201/20080201_arista.html

  Amanda Sanchez - Kids in the U.S. Continue to Download Music Illegally

  http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_080130b.html

  Maddy McNally - Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

  A simple pleasure such as music has become a huge controversy in the digital age. Most college aged students who download music (sometimes legally and some times illegally) are now being targeted by the RIAA. Those who download music illegally are doing it so via peer-to-peer networks. A study noted in one of the articles found that "most are using pay-to-download stores on the Web to acquire music, NPD noted high levels of illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, as well". However, those who are acquiring their music in legal methods such as through iTunes are still being targeted. They are now targeting people, mainly students, who legally purchase their music but then transfer it to a different source say an iPod. This may seem absurd but it is against copyright laws, making the whole process of enjoying music so difficult.
  
  This relates to what we have been discussing in class about file sharing. File sharing is a popular way students and others transfer different media around, from music to just normal files. It does however generally always mean illegal file-sharing. This controversy over file sharing has come up in our class in various different ways from the documentary "Good Copy, Bad Copy", to the various cases in class. We have also been discussing that the laws are helping out bigger corporations, they have not really been created to help out the average person.