Nasty Napster No-No’s Affect Magic Authors’ RightsInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Piracy Can Be Attractive But Still Wrong

So here is the truth. There are spin-offs of the now-emasculated Napster peer-to-peer file sharing system that have so far scooted under the radar.

Kazaa, Morpheus, eDonkey and WINMX have all set-up what is called ?true p2p systems.? Napster
incurred the wrath of the recording industry but also the penalties of
the Federal Copyright law because it was more than just a way of people
getting together to share files.

Napster actually kept some of the files transferred and was, therefore, more involved in the illegal acts.

These more recent entries in the peer to peer network are less-centralized than Napster. By using the software, you can open all or a part of your personal computer?s hard drive to the internet.

Your
directory is included in the files other computer users can search and
if you have a file they would like, it can be downloaded from your disk
to theirs.

The Government?s shut-down of Napster didn?t really bother us. It was at best a wink-and-a-nod skirting of the law to steal music files. We don?t listen to much music and certainly not to music we haven?t purchased.

We
read, however, that these newest systems were making the transfer or
illegal copying of non-music files just as easy as downloading a
bootleg version of Christmas with Jim Neighbors.

We went on one of the p2p systems to check it out. Set-up was easy. It
indexed our hard drives but we turned off the ?sharing? subsystem that
would allow others on…

Piracy Can Be Attractive But Still Wrong

So here is the truth. There are spin-offs of the now-emasculated Napster peer-to-peer file sharing system that have so far scooted under the radar.

Napster actually kept some of the files transferred and was, therefore, more involved in the illegal acts.

These more recent entries in the peer to peer network are less-centralized than Napster. By using the software, you can open all or a part of your personal computer?s hard drive to the internet.

Your
directory is included in the files other computer users can search and
if you have a file they would like, it can be downloaded from your disk
to theirs.

We
read, however, that these newest systems were making the transfer or
illegal copying of non-music files just as easy as downloading a
bootleg version of Christmas with Jim Neighbors.

We went on one of the p2p systems to check it out. Set-up was easy. It
indexed our hard drives but we turned off the ?sharing? subsystem that
would allow others on the web to see and download the files on our
computer.

We?re
not going to give much detail about what system or what steps were
necessary because we think these networks are illegal and should be
avoided. It is difficult to imagine how they will enforce the shut down, however.

All of the users are anonymous and none of the process is centralized. There is some hope, however. We?ll get to that in a second.

Within five minutes of going live on the system our search for ?magic? yielded thousands of non-music files. We were presented a list of over 1,800 edocuments, ebooks, DVDs and image files we could download for free.

For instance, we were able to download virtually all of Michael Ammar?s DVD collection, or the latest Banachek DVD series. There were ebooks produced by Lybrary.com made available for theft by their original purchasers.

Did
you want the complete Tarbell set but didn?t want to pay for the hard
work or royalties? You just need to click a box and down it comes ? for
free.

You know what this means, correct? Someone out in the internet world of faceless enablers is opening their computer to allow you to take what is not their to give. Maybe they got it the same way or maybe they bought it legitimately.

Either
way, they are knowingly helping you violate copyright laws around the
world and to rip off the authors of the DVDs, videos, books, or
compilations.

Here?s our position: It is wrong. There is no civil liberty argument one can launch for the taking of something illegally. There is no civil liberty defense for making the copyrighted materials available for downloading. None.

We debated whether to even mention this on Inside Magic. We don?t want to encourage folks on the edge to slip into the morass of immorality and theft. Hopefully your constitutions are sufficient to keep you from doing this.

But, as mentioned earlier, there is a self-policing mechanism installed in all of these p2p systems. In
the same way one risks contracting a bothersome to fatal disease by
extra-marital relations, hooking up with the internet?s version of easy
love or lust will almost certainly bring you a virus sufficient to wipe
out your computer?s memory of the illicit act. It will also probably wipe out any files you have saved.

According
to the experts at Tech TV (now G4 Tech TV), the p2p contributors are
not all altruistic free file sharing folks. Some are downright ugly,
scumbags looking to ruin your life for their enjoyment. The
files you download and secure on your drive are likely to contain
virulent strains of internet viruses strong enough to get past even
your best anti-virus software.

According to Information
Week, 45 percent of the results listed for any given search will be
files intentionally or unintentionally infected with viruses. You have given the viruses a free shot to your computers by logging in and disarming the access protection. You will be as vulnerable as those who prey on your type would hope.

If
you happen to be one of the file sharers making the DVDs, ebooks or
other materials available, you already know that you should stop. This
essay won?t stop you; you have already decided that you do not wish to
respect the property and business others work so hard to develop.

If
you are thinking about downloading material you do not own and for
which you have no property rights; we can only hope, in all sense of
charity, your computer gets the fever and dies. Sure,
that means we?ll have a few less readers but when you re-stage your
system and get back into the real world, you?ll be a better, wiser and
more considerate reader.