Why is emule and other pere to pere file sharing engines legal??

Question

Money copyright protected programs such as windows xp are available, shouldn't it be considered illegal?

Answer 1

P2P can never be illegal. Are 1's and 0's which all data is ultimately considered illegal before they are even sent?

P2P is used for thousands of legit file transfering methods. Some software companies release freeware on p2p to save bandwidth. Its a common "meeting ground" where a user can be sure find up to date freeware at no cost to the developer. No bandwidth, no web hosting.

Underground bands are widly distributed via P2P networks, allowing them to get publicity. Same with underground movies. 2 local directors I know have movies on emule... why? Would you like to host a 800 divx on a website for hundreds of people to download? Or have it available on p2p networks for free.

Local bands I know often post albums in FLAC, which is a lossless format. But often has albums taking up hundreds of MB's.

The RIAA has a ego from hell, thinking every 1 and 0 over the internet belongs to it. And if it was up to them, you would pay for every bit you download no matter what it was, music, text, video...RIAA cant imagine someone would listen to a noise which isnt under contract from one of its funding record labels. Its a corporation which needs to find" criminals" otherwise it will drive itself into unemployment.

LOL

Answer 2

My understanding is that it is probably technically illegal like housing a felon. Even though Emule in itself doesn't break the law, it plays host to illegal fiiles, or actually the servers do. You can have a felon sign all the paperwork he can but it doesn't save the owner of the property from being in trouble with the bigger guy, the feds. Emule and the servers are sort of just a virtual meeting point for peers to swap files. Perhaps the RIAA is just more focused on going after users or easier targets.

Answer 3

Setting up a file sharing service might be legal in some juristictions in the world, and the internet is a world-wide thing. The copyright laws are directed at the people that are using the service. So how do you stop file sharing services when it is so costly to get engaged in fighting an International case.

Answer 4

The program itself is not illegal, but the offering of copywrited files without registration is illegal....it's not the peer to peer, it's the way you use it. Peer to peer can actually be used to a great advantage when trying to resolve some computer issues, such as missing .dll files etc.

Answer 5

They should be legal. There are many items that are exchanged where there is no copyright or legal restriction on the distribution. Many companies use this and other technology, Bit Torrent, to distribute files to their employees. It is the people who post copyrighted material that are breaking the law.

Answer 6

The software is legal. The common uses may be illegal, but that doesn't make the software illegal.

Owning a car is perfectly legal. Driving it while drunk is not. It's how you use it that matters.

Answer 7

The software itself it's legal but downloading and sharing files without proper authorisation isn't! This is the difference.

Answer 8

It is legal because it gives a notice to anyone who uses it that they are not responsible for how it is used.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

FURST OF ALL IT IS WRITTEN PEER 2 PEER. BECAUSE IS NOT ONLY ILLEGAL CONTENT TRADED VIA PEER TO PEER