Question by : How illegal is music and/or movie file sharing?
I was under the impression that downloading and sharing of copyrighted movies/music was illegal, but then how are bitTorrents not illegal? A friend tried to explain to me that downloading is OK, but that allowing others to copy the file from you is not. What is true and what are the specifics/laws/penalities around sharing of these files?
Best answer:
Answer by John C
You are downloading from somebody, so it is all illegal, to the tune of $ 10,000 fine per song, more for movies!
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There’s nothing illegal about BitTorrent. I’m not sure what you’re friend might have meant by that.
I don’t know how to quantify “illegal” though. You seem to want to know what magnitude of offence it is, but it’s not like there’s a scale from 1 to 10 of transgressions though.
In most countries, if not all countries, it’s a civil issue, not criminal. They’re not going to execute you for copyright infringement, if that’s a good way of phrasing it.
illegal is illegal it’s not a matter of how illegal it is.
its illegal…
in fact its SO illegal that the government has implanted tiny little midgets into every computer sold after 2007 and at night they pop out and check your history making sure you didnt download anything illegal…
if it finds something it alerts the RIAA which sends a swat team and the nfl commissioner to torch your house and steal all your stuff including that brand new Toyota you’ve got sitting in your driveway which you’ve missed like 6 lease payments on…
You can’t punish someone for creating a website for filesharing. If people upload and download files illegally, that’s not the CREATOR’S fault! BitTorrents are legal, just not for illegally shared property(s). Downloading ANYTHING copyrighted is totally illegal, no way around it other than to not get caught.
Torrents themselves are not illegal, if the content is legal to share. Period.
For example, I download my Linux distributions via torrents – perfectly legal…
Sharing music and movies is the illegal part. The torrent file is not the issue, it is the peers that are sending the data that are breaking the law, as well as your downloading the content. That’s why technically, posting a torrent is not illegal, regardless of what it points to. It’s just pointers/keys. Once you load the torrent and start downloading, that’s when it becomes illegal… (for music and movies)
Torrents are not illegal in and of themselves because a torrent file is little more than a hash and checksum. Some torrents are legitimate, such as those used for the distribution of Ubuntu, an OS that is offered completely for free anyways; this takes a load off of the servers that might otherwise be expected to handle huge amounts of traffic when each new release comes out. What is illegal is using said technology to distribute copyrighted works without consent from the holders of that copyright. If caught, the usual penalty is a fairly hefty fine. However, if one is cautious, it can be fairly difficult to prove infringement.
If the content is copyrighted, it’s both a violation of copyright (a civil tort for which you can be sued) and theft of intellectual property and possession of stolen property, both of which are criminal offenses and for which you can be imprisoned.
Allowing others to copy from you is, in addition to the above, distribution of stolen property.
The exact laws depend on where you live.
BitTorrents themselves aren’t illegal. In fact, the protocol was originally designed for the propagation of programs by the person who write them – and the owner can give them to anyone he chooses. The use of the protocol to share copyrighted material is the problem, not the protocol itself.