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Why All P2P File Sharing Services are Legal

By Peter Nisbet

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 15Mar2009
Word count: 779
Viewed: 216 time(s)

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The term 'legal P2P file sharing services' is a redundant one, since all fire sharing services are legal. It is the use to which they are put that is sometimes illegal - rather more than 'sometimes' in most cases. That, however, no more makes the platform illegal than ticket cheaters make rail travel illegal.

If a track is recorded from a radio for personal use does that make radio transmissions illegal? Of course not! Are DVD recorders illegal because people record copyrighted movies and show them to their friends? Of course not! Is the software that allows people to copy articles from article directories illegal, or even the directories themselves? Again, of course not.

Then why is P2P file sharing software illegal? Why, also, is advertising such software frowned upon to the extent that most online advertising services do not permit their adverts to be placed on P2P download websites? Most don't even accept adverts for file sharing websites or for the P2P software they promote. This appears to be a reaction based upon personal opinion and not the true legal situation.

P2P file sharing is not illegal, and all free P2P software is legal. So too are file sharing websites that do not encourage users to breech copyright law. There are few differences between free P2P services and those have to be paid for. The membership sites offering a one-time life membership fee tend to provide accelerated downloading software, enabling files to be downloaded significantly faster, and improved search and storage facilities compared to the free Gnutella open source software. Who wants to wait overnight when an hour or two will do?

Paid sites are also fee of Adware and Spyware, and generally also of viruses. It can occasionally be very dangerous and costly to use free file sharing sites, and low cost of a lifetime subscription is nothing when compared to the cost of a new computer or hefty repair bill. A fine can be costly, but only if you have a case to answer.

It is illegal to download copyrighted audio and video files, and that is inarguable by anyone. It is also inarguable that it is not illegal to download audio and video files that are not copyrighted, some of which might have been produced precisely for that reason: to be downloaded so that the artiste becomes better known and sells more of his or her work once it is known. How does it get known? By being played, and by no other way.

Here are some reasons why free P2P file downloading is regarded a useful tool by many budding new singers and movie-makers:

1. To get their name known and associated with a particular style.

2. To assess the public reaction to a new tune or new movie. If initial reactions to the free P2P downloads are favorable, then a full version might be considered worth recording.

3. To find out public reaction to a new idea in movie-making.

4. For amateurs to get reaction to a new song or singer before deciding to go the whole hog and invest their money into cutting a disk or making a movie.

It costs a lot of money for amateurs to launch a new artiste, make a movie or even produce a music album, and this type of free market research is extremely valuable to them. Yet the professional music and movie-makers want to ban their means of doing so. I wonder why. . .

Sure, a lot of tracks and movies are downloaded illegally, but don't get het up about it. These same guys that complain about it keep their mouths shut when the kids listen to a track, like it and then buy a ticket for their gig. That's where the money comes from. OK, downloading copyrighted movies is bad, but there are better ways of counteracting that than taking them to court.

Why go for the kids and not the big boys that are copying their downloads to DVD and CD and selling them. Too difficult? Stop hitting the high school kids and their poor moms, and get going for the pros - or are the Chinese too clever for them?

P2P file sharing is not illegal. Free P2P sites are not illegal. Copying downloaded copyright protected movies, music and video games is illegal. Stop banning what is not illegal and target what is: marketing thousands upon thousands of pirated CDs, games and DVDs and selling them to kids who would be better copying their own fresh stuff that is not protected - in fact, just what peer to peer file sharing software was developed to do.

For more articles like this one on free P2P file sharing ethics, and details of lifetime membership P2P software, visit Online Free Movies and find how you can legally download music, movies and games.

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