If the cost of music seems outrageous to you, what about the cost of a movie? To see a movie in the theaters, you're looking to spend about $8 on the ticket alone. To buy a DVD, you may pay up to $25. As a college student, or even as a human being who may have better things to spend their money on, downloading movies and TV shows has become a popular option.
BitTorrent is a web site where you can share files and information with peers. More often that not, this site is used to download TV shows and movies for free. Some of the movies are older and there are no copyright implications anymore. However, users can also download things such as the weekly episode of their favorite TV show. Of course, this brings forth many questions. Is this at all legal? Can I download it to my computer without getting in trouble?
Use of this service can result in fines. Although the program itself is legal, the things you download may be downloaded illegally. The Motion Picture Association and the Recording Industry Association are watching this site closely. Like LimeWire, users can be fined a large amount for the use of this site if they are caught illegally downloading.
According to the BitTorrent Copyright Infringement Policy, it seems that the copyright holders are also somewhat in charge of protecting their own work. Copyright holders are able to file complaints when they see that their work is being unfairly used. BitTorrent also reminds copyright holders of what fair use is, and advises the users to allow users for fair use reasons.
If you use BitTorrent, do so carefully.
While we're on the subject of popular online activities such as downloading music, I'd like to bring up another popular online activity-- watching YouTube videos.
Of course, not all YouTube videos are copyrighted, and if you are an avid watcher, it's not likely that there will be a lawsuit brought against you for it. However, there is plenty of illegal activity that occurs on YouTube.
YouTube sees a great deal of "take down notices". If a user uploads a video that is copyrighted material, YouTube is issued a take down notice. YouTube must then remove the video immediately or face fines or prosecution. These "take down notices" may also be called "cease and desist" notices.
In my opinion, YouTube is pretty good about this. There are plenty of times where I tried to watch videos that are of my favorite movies or TV shows only to find that I cannot access them anymore.
Of course, you can't get into trouble just for watching these videos. Particularly if they aren't available anymore.
YouTube is a safe site to use. However, as a word of advice, be careful of the videos you post.
Sources:
"What Is ?" BitTorrent. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.
"BitTorrent (protocol) - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia." Main Page - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.
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