| Show B software takes the lead in the fight against piracy S Sam am Copper Community Editor New software has changed the U.S.-led U.S. war against pira pira- cy Using the open source software facilitating illegal downloading download download- ing have sprung up worldwide many in countries with lax or non-existent non copyright protection protection protection tion laws To make matters worse for the United States' States stance the software makes users nearly anonymous making making making mak mak- ing prosecution practically llly impossible For many students at downloading illegal music and video isn't just easy its it's worry free Its ridiculous said Beth a business major Everyone does it They should just accept it they make enough money already She was using the peer to peer file sharing program until a consortium of record companies began suing a practice that is no longer tenable with Millions of peer to peer simply switched programs making torrent tracking a ar r Mecca for music and movie buffs willing to o break the law y In response lobbyists for forthe forthe forthe the record and movie industries industries industries indus indus- tries have been urging lawmakers lawmakers lawmakers law law- makers in Washington to apply political pressure to foreign governments harboring web web- sites they believe to be operating operating operating ing illegally Under political pressure from the United States the popular torrent indexing web web- site The Pirate Bay located in Stockholm Sweden was recently raided by police investigating possible copyright copyright copyright copy copy- right violations Before the theraid theraid theraid raid The Pirate Bay was in the top most visited on the Internet An estimated 50 police stormed into the building seizing computers routers and files Within three days the had relocated to the Netherlands and was fully operational Previous torrent torrent torrent tor tor- tor- tor rent tracking sites in Slovenia and Finland have been closed only to shift users to other sites It is estimated that traffic makes up as much as 35 percent of all internet internet inter inter- internet net traffic The Pirate Bay is one of many torrent trackers which index f files es making them available available available avail avail- able for download By using software an indexing indexing indexing index index- ing has no knowledge of the information it tracks but only allows users to connect with one another and share files meso This has been used in defense of indexing sites which assert that they are not liable for the type of information information information tion being distributed using their since they only provide the service and are not responsible for how it is used software was created created created cre cre- cre- cre by American programmer Bran Cohen in 2002 The software software software soft soft- ware allows users to upload a file to another computer while in the process of downloading it from a different computer With multiple users downloading downloading download download- ing the same file the software creates a web of sharing allowing small parts of a large file to come from multiple sources to a computer where it itis itis itis is put together piece by piece The especially effective large files being oJ of distributed i l increasing downloading speeds and allowing thousands of users to download at once Though software has been heavily criticized for its illegal applications its legal use is expanding nearly as fast Recently Warner Wamer Brother Records announced it would be distributing television shows using Other shows including Democracy Now are distributed over the internet using torrent software The rock band Harvey Danger distributed its album Little by Little in the same way For lawmakers distinguishing distinguish distinguish- ing between the legal use of software and its illegal uses may be difficult For the issue is a lot simpler The Internet is like a F public park she said Everyone should have the right to use it however when when- ever |
