Ethics of Peer to Peer downloading and Sharing
Strayer University

Abstract
In the short time that computers and internet have existed in the modern era, the world has seen a complete 360 degree turn and in the various forms of electronic entertainment that people all over the world are now using. In the days before CD’s, DVD’s and the internet, not much was said if a vinyl album (remember these?), VHS cassette (or these?) or an audio cassette was loaned to a friend for their listening / viewing pleasure, but today with the availability of sending an email with three or four megabytes (mb) of information, one can enjoy a borrowed song but is assumed that it is piracy or stealing. Is this a fair assumption? This Author will not give
By present day, it is to include the modern era of computers and the Internet. With the invention of the Internet, CD’S, DVD’s and other forms of electronic technologies came to associated people that would eventually try to use these inventions to their fullest extent. This too included the sharing of files, music and software. Napster was one of the first agencies to openly advertise that you could “share” files with their P2P software. What happened? According to History.com, Napster began operation in 2000 and by later in the year, some 60 million users were freely “sharing electronic media of various forms. This is where the modern practice of enforcing the existing versions of copyright laws was being challenged in court. Napster, as it originally operated, only lasted for about a year and a half before the legal eagles of the media industry came at them with a vengeance and essentially shut them down. These lawyers, representing just about all aspects of the music industry, “filed suit against the company, alleging "vicarious copyright infringement" under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1996.” (history.com) Although Napster continued to exist in various forms since 2000, after going legit, they just have not had the same impact on the P2P world