Understanding Online Piracy: The Truth about Illegal File Sharing

(Hardback)

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Description

The complex world of online piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing is skillfully condensed into an easy-to-understand guide that provides insight into the criminal justice approach to illegal file sharing, while offering guidance to parents and students who have concerns about potential legal action in response to file-sharing activities. While the actual impact of digital piracy is nearly impossible to precisely calculate, the threat of financial damage from illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing to the world's highest-grossing entertainment firms (and even entire industries!) has garnered attention from government, industry, and academic leaders and criminal justice professionals. Oftentimes, those providing access to computers and file sharing capabilities-parents, schools, libraries-don't know about or understand these activities and, therefore, put themselves and their families at risk for criminal and civil prosecution. This work describes the technological, legal, social, and ethical facets of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. Geared toward parents, teachers, librarians, students, and any other computer user engaged in file sharing, this book will help readers to understand all forms of traditional and digital copyright violations of protected music, movies, and software. To date over 18,000 P2P users have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Most of these users have been college students and parents of high-school students. While word of these law suits are spreading, and many parents fear that their children may be using a family computer to illegally download and share copyrighted works, few supervising adults have the technical knowledge needed to determine whether and to what extent pirating may be occurring via a computer and Internet connection they are legally responsible for. Additionally, while P2P networks are filled with millions of users with billions of copyrighted files, few users understand the ways in which they are illegally using computers and other mobile electronic devices to download protected content. While describing both technical and social issues, this book primarily focuses on the social aspects of illegal file sharing, and provides technical concepts at a general level. Fisk skillfully condenses the complex nature of file sharing systems into an easy-to-understand guide, provides insight into the criminal justice approach to illegal file sharing, and offers guidance to parents and students who have concerns about potential legal action in response to file sharing activities.

Reviews

This comprehensive and up-to-date text covers all aspects of computer file sharing ranging from the technology involved to the legal consequences of unauthorized use and abuse of those files. Not only file users themselves would benefit from a careful reading of Understanding Online Piracy, but also parents, teachers, librarians, and computer file content providers as well. . . . Simply stated, Understanding Online Piracy is critically important reading for anyone who is sending or receiving computer files, and should be readily available in the collections of every high school, college, university, and community library in the country. * The Midwest Book Review - Wisconsin Bookwatch, Reviewer's Choice *
In this guide to helping parents, teachers, and others understand online piracy and copyright issues, Fisk (PhD candidate, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York) presents the reality behind stereotypes of young nerds illegally sharing files in the computer underground. As a longtime observer of this virtual world, he introduces the definition and history of online piracy, stakeholders in this ethical gray area, and technological developments that may thwart online pirates. The book includes legal case studies, interview transcripts with one of the peer-to-peer users sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, resources, and a timeline. * Reference & Research Book News *

Author Bio

Nathan W. Fisk is a PhD candidate in science and technology studies and a research assistant at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY.