Legal p2p Sites and Is
p2p File Sharing Illegal?

Practically all p2p systems are run from legal p2p sites. The answer to the question 'is p2p file sharing illegal' must be no. Many users download files through P2P services without realising that the files may be protected by copyright laws. These files may have been illegally obtained initially, or may have been legitimately purchased, but are still covered by intellectual copyright. So, is p2p file sharing illegal?

Sharing such material without the permission of the copyright holder is a breach of international law. In the USA each state has its own laws on this, and Australia are in the process of making peer-to-peer services illegal. It is currently illegal to own Kazaa in Australia. However, how is owning legal p2p software illegal? Instead of persecuting the legal peer-to-peer sites, music companies should find better ways of making copyright protection obvious, or even of making files non-downloadable.

Here are some P2P sites for you to look at. Most offer movies, music and games plus free anti-adware and spyware programs. You generally also get free burning software included (though some may charge). These links will open new windows, so check your pop-up blocker is disabled or press CTRL when clicking:

Lightspeed Movies * Music * PC Games * PS2 Games

It is not entirely the fault of the legal p2p sites if people insist on carrying out illegal downloads, but these same legal p2p sites should at least carry some of the responsibility to make it easier to control the illegal downloads.

The absence of a copyright notice does not necessarily imply that than a file can be freely copied. The notice may have been removed or modified. Although a large number of emerging artistes have made their material freely available for sharing in order to advertise their talents, it is best to assume that, unless a file specifically states this, all material obtained through file-sharing software is subject to copyright. Some perfectly legal p2p software available on the internet warns customers at each attempted download of a piece of music for which a download license is not available. As I have said, the answer to 'is p2p file sharing illegal' is no – it is the way it is used that is illegal. Other than in Australia it is not illegal to own it, and it is of great benefit to young writers and singers who have a very cheap way of getting their name know.

Artistic talent is scarce enough at the moment without the use of legal p2p sites being withdrawn from them.

In the long run, it is you who are responsible for what you download, whether it has a visible copyright notice or not. With music this is generally very difficult to determine. However I find it difficult to blame the perfectly legal p2p sites – it is the people doing the downloading who are breaking the law, and sometimes they are totally unaware they are doing so. Though I would guess that most people know the score by now, it should be beyond large corporations’ technical skills to come up with a solution to this themselves, rather than fining 12 year old kids.

I believe that the big record companies would be better spending their time and money finding out how to use the internet to their advantage than suing kids for using the net more effectively than these record companies ever did. As usual, the giants are being left behind in the technology race and all they can do when they find out that kids are cleverer than them is to bring out the sledgehammers. Their brains could be put to better use, if they have any.

So, is p2p file sharing illegal? Absolutely not. It is those who use it illegally who are the problem.

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