When we give some other person and take some data. After all, the whole purpose of connecting
computers to a network is so that data can easily flow between them.
Despite huge advances in processing power and remarkable pieces of
software coming out every day, we’ve struggled to solve one of the
Internet’s first problems: how to send each other files.
If you’ve heard the phrase “file sharing”
before, it probably wasn’t in an entirely positive context. The term
first began to enter the public consciousness in the late 90s when a
college student named Shawn Fanning released a program called Napster.
Perhaps the most infamous of what we now term “peer-to-peer” file
sharing technologies, Napster was an instant hit among college students
who used it to trade mp3 files of their favorite music on their
high-speed college network
connections. While previous generations not only had to pay for musical
recordings but were limited in their ability to copy music, college
students at the turn of the century were trading not just individual
songs but entire music collections with the click of a mouse.
The problem is that when albums are
being freely traded nobody is being paid. Within a few years record
labels and artists began to sue not just Napster but individual users
who downloaded songs they didn’t own for copyright violation. These lawsuits
were successful in shutting down Napster, but in the years since a wide
variety of bew ways to share files, legally and illegally, have
appeared online.
There are several factors that determine
whether or not you’re allowed to share a particular file. The question
we’re looking at today is whether or not the file contains copyrighted
material. While Napster brought attention to the distribution of
copyrighted music, lots of other media can be copyrighted: the text of
books, movies, photographs, maps, computer programs, and really anything
else that can be considered an original work. The only time that
sharing a copyrighted work is acceptable is when the right’s holder has
given permission or negotiated a contract for use of the copyrighted
work. For instance, let’s say you want to use a song in a promotional
video for your company. First, you have to figure out who holds the
copyright to the song. It could be the original artist who wrote the
song, the musicians who played and recorded the song, the record label
who released the music commercially, or even a third party who bought
the rights to the track. Then you need to reach an agreement with the
copyright holder, usually in the form of payment for use of the song.
Copyright is a complicated topic, but
the fact is that you cannot simply share other people’s work freely
online. Just because other people do it (and sometimes get away with it)
doesn’t mean that you should. After all, copyright is an important part
of our system of laws, guaranteeing that a people who create original
works are free to make money from their creations.
Thankfully, you can freely share plenty
of other files online without worry. Anything you’ve created, whether
it’s a home video or a business proposal, is yours to do with as you
please. Similarly, there are lots of times when you receive files and
are given permission to share them. Every day families share photographs
with one another, and PowerPoint presentations travel around the
office. As long as the creator of these photographs and documents has
approved of their use, this kind of file sharing is perfectly legal.
While email works for small files, what about when you need to send something larger like a video clip
or audio track? If you’ve ever tried, then you already know what
happens—the email is returned, too large to deliver. While email is a
perfect solution for day-to-day communication and sharing simple
documents, large files require a different solution.
