Internet Piracy
By Jennifer Sullivan
Axia College of University of Phoenix

Jacob Chaplinski, a 34 year old man from Calumet City, Illinois, recently learned that he can get music, movies, video games, and even computer software for free, and all he had to do was download it from a peer-to-peer client, more commonly known as P2P networking. What he did not realize was that companies like RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) were now tracking people’s internet provider addresses. After capturing these addresses, these companies then file a class action suit against all of the people that they have caught electronically giving or receiving the copyrighted material. While it is almost impossible to prevent people from committing acts of piracy, it is wrong both legally and morally to download pirated materials from the internet. The exact definition of software piracy reads as follows, “File Sharing is the "Sharing of files over a network or between several applications running on the same workstation." Dictionary of Networking 3rd ed. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Network is "A lan [local area network] in which drives, files and printers on each PC can be available to every other PC on the network, eliminating the need for dedicated file servers (UCL Broward 2009). That means that if it costs money to buy and it was not paid for it chances are an act of piracy was just committed. After any kind of computer program is purchased, the buyer will usually install said program, be it a game or software. Upon opening the shrink wrap that the software comes in the buyer has just agreed to a EULA, or end user license agreement. Some software makes the buyer agree to the EULA upon installation, and they have to agree to it or the installation of that software can not finish. Typically, the license will state that the buyer may install the original copy of the purchased software on one computer. The buyer is allowed to make a back-up of the disk in case the original is lost or stolen. However it also generally states that they are not permitted to duplicate the software with the intent of distributing it in any way. This does not only pertain to computer software, but to music and movies as well. There are many ways piracy can be committed. The most common way being internet piracy, where one person uploads a program, movie, or music file for another to download. Another common way that people commit an act of piracy is called softlifting. Softlifting is when software is purchased and then loaded onto multiple computers (Merry 2009). There are a multitude of ways a person can commit an act of piracy and not even realize that they are breaking a law and could therefore face a huge fine. There are many programs that people can use to aid them with piracy, however the problem with them all, is that they were designed to share freeware. The most popular program out there is P2P, or peer-to-peer networking. Programs like Warez, Azureus Vuze, and Limewire are all examples or a P2P client. Another way that people share files and therefore occasionally commit acts of piracy is through FTP sites. FTP stands for file transfer protocol. These are basically websites that a person can pay for and set up as a means of sharing files with another person that would typically be too large to email. After getting one of these programs a person is then free to download pretty much whatever they can find using a search engine. Search engines are how a person downloading certain material searches for them. Just as people use www.google.com or www.yahoo.com to search for information over the internet, the same idea applies to people looking specifically for movies, music, books, software, or games. A search engine can be one found with the P2P client they downloaded, or one that uses bit torrent over the web such as www.isohunt.com,