Take a Step – Protect your Computer File Now! Tips and Guides to Protect your Computer In File Sharing!

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       File Sharing 

One of the easiest ways that I know of to have your computer become infected with a virus or other malicious software is by downloading freeware, shareware, or person-to-person(P2P) files using a file sharing site. For instance, using Limewire, Bearshare, or Morpheus to download free P2P music files. These sites use the Gnutella network to allow you access to millions of computer users files. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that these free files don’t contain a virus, spyware, or even a Trojan Horse. Ultimately, this could lead you to becoming a victim of identity theft, one of the fastest growing crimes in Canada and the USA.

In fact, I have talked to several people over the years whose computers have become infected with viruses and other malware from using software from a file sharing site to download free music, video files, etc.

Recently, a good friend of mine was telling me that his computer had become infected with viruses and other malicious software. This had happened from his son using Limewire software to download free files such as MP3 music. These free files sadly contained more than he bargained for.

 file sharing

The other day I was talking with a lady that uses Limewire to download free music files. I told her that by using free file sharing software her computer very well could become infected with a virus or other malware. She responded that she doesn’t have to worry about this because she has good internet security software installed.

Just because you have internet security software, such as an anti-virus program, installed on your computer, doesn’t mean that you can now safely download files from free file sharing sites.

This is because thousands of new viruses and other malicious software are created everyday. Although it is essential that you have anti-virus and other internet security software installed on your computer it is only as good as the last update. Internet security companies are very much playing a cat and mouse game in their effort to defend you against the latest internet security threat. That free MP3 music or video file you downloaded could very well be infected with a virus or other malware that hasn’t yet been detected by the internet security companies.

Your free MP3 music files, etc. could even be infected with a Remote Acces Trojan, the most common type of Trojan Horse. This malicious software could allow a criminal view and change your computer’s files and functions, monitor and record your activities, store files and programs on your computer, and turn on your webcam and spy with you. The Trojan Horse could even use a keystroke logger, also known as a keylogger, to secretly record your banking info, passwords, credit card numbers, etc. The crook could use this information to steal your identity. As Drew Carey of the Price is right would say, "come on down, you’re the next victim of identity theft!"

It is simply not worth the risk, for the sake of saving a few dollars, of using free file sharing sites to download files such as MP3 music and videos. Using free file sharing sites puts your internet security and privacy in jeapardy. I highly reccomend you spend a few dollars on legal and safe music downloads from sites such as Napster and Rhapsody. As the saying goes, it is indeed better to be safe than sorry!

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The UK online music market is a potentially huge market. Over the last eighteen months a great number of legitimate music services like ourselves have emerged to take advantage of the new music distribution model pioneered by Napster’s Shawn Fanning in 1999. Although we currently hold 35% of the online music market, we will have to continue to develop our strategy and online practises if we want to build our market share and compete with the big international competitors, namely the iTunes network. This document is both an analysis of our current strategy and a proposal to extend it.

Analysis of current system

The strategy we have developed over the last two years centres around selling songs on a price per song basis. This is one basic strategy that all online music vendors have adopted. One of the key factors in Apple’s success was its famously low 99 cents per song price tag. Because of this, we, like many other online music providers will find it very difficult to compete in pricing. According to popular legend, Apple secured this low price by refusing to sign the terms offered by the record labels then going ahead and launching iTunes anyway, daring the record labels to pull out. Labels have repeatedly tried to renegotiate this deal to no avail. None of the labels are willing to risk pulling out of the iTunes network and losing their foothold in the paid download business. As well as ‘pay per song’ there are a number of other tactics for selling music online. One method proposed by Ken Hertz, who represents Alanis Morrissette among other recording artists, is a flat fee collective licensing system. In flat fee collective licensing customers pay a fixed subscription fee to be allowed to download as much content as they want. This income is then divided among the content providers based on the percentage uptake of their content, as opposed to the unit uptake of their content (Fisher. WW, 2004). Fisher believes this model will lead to a reduced profit per song but an increased uptake of the service. This has already been shown to be an effective business model when applied to video rental. Having been pioneered by Blockbuster with their 13.99 online video rental service it has since been adopted by Amazon and Screen Select to provide similar services. I believe this model would be successful for us as it lets customers believe that by using the service regularly they are getting good value for money. Value for money has been a sticking point for music fans for a long time. Often, many people justify using illegal services like Emule or Limewire by claiming that the cost of purchasing music legally is excessive for the product. The main problem with this model is that it would require the content owners (the record labels) to license their work to distributors.

Review of competitor activity

Our market is currently divided among a number of legal and illegal music services. These include services like Amazon where you can order a physical copy of a music CD online, services like the new Napster where you can search and download both free and paid for music and (semi) illegal services like Emule P2P where you can download anything you want for free.

Napster:

Napster has been involved in mainstream online digital distribution of music longer than any other company, and is arguably the most famous company in the field. Napster was launched as a free music sharing facility in 1999, and faced legal battles from the outset. It was finally forced to succumb to business pressure in 2001, at which point it began the six month process of re-inventing itself as a legal service. This brings us to the Napster we see today. Napster currently offers its customers three packages, ‘Napster To Go’ for 14.95 a month, Napster Membership for 9.95 and Napster lite. ‘Napster To Go’ and Napster Membership allows customers to download as much music as they like to their Computer. ‘Napster To Go’ also allows music to be downloaded via special terminals in high street stores and internet ready televisions direct to MP3 players. Napster Lite is Napster’s basic free package. It allows customers to pay for music on a per song basis at 79p. Customers can choose what they want by listening to 30 second segments of the content before they commit to purchasing. Napster lite also allows its users to access music stored on other Napster users shared space, but this is carefully screened to prevent piracy. One flaw in the Napster system is that in order to continue using the content you download, you need to keep paying for the service. This will to lead to consumer scepticism as people won’t like the idea of being trapped in the service to keep their music collection.

iTunes Music Store:

iTunes music store opened its door for service on 28th April 2003. Its strongest asset is its seamless operation with the Apple iPod. The iPod is the most popular MP3 player currently available and like most Apple products, usability was high on its priority list during development. The existing popularity of the iPod and iTunes combined made the process of extending the commercial attributes of the system a simple task. The music content is protected with Apple’s fair play digital rights management (DRM) but there are several hacks for this which Apple has so far been unsuccessful in blocking. Since its launch the range of features it offers has continued to expand. You can now buy gift certificates, download video and special content, create your own iTunes store and upload your own music via garage band, Apple’s music production suite. By allowing their users to produce and sell their own music apple has opened the door for their service to be used in many novel ways. For example Stanford has recently started using iTunes to freely distribute special academic and promotional content centred around learning and living on campus.

P2P networks:

The P2P networks are arguably the greatest threat to our model of business. Despite frequent law suites and attempts at sabotage record labels have been unable shut them down. A peer to peer network is basically a distributed file system where the shared content on every connected computer gets grouped together into one super directory. A search facility then allows connected users to find and download what they want to their local shared directory. As content gets spread across the network it becomes more accessible to other users. From the users perspective this has the advantage of being free, but the disadvantage of being unreliable. Content is often mis-labelled or incomplete. There are a number of tactics employed by content owners to further disrupt P2P activity including suing downloader’s, distributing mis-labelled content, and distributing content that harms a downloader’s computer. Record labels have also attempted to stop piracy at the source, by preventing users from uploading their music to their computers. However, this method has proven unsuccessful as it can be easily circumvented using real time encoding software, which encodes the music straight off the microphone jack. Record labels have also been sued by consumer rights groups and had their reputations tarnished over the legality of this tactic.

Online CD sales:

Among many consumers a consensus seems to have formed that paid music comes with CD and downloaded music is free. I personally like to have something physical to own when I purchase music. For this reason online CD sales are still very popular. CDNOW, Amazon and HMV online are some of the most popular retailers for this in the UK. A CD has the advantage of being a more tangible asset than a download and is therefore better suited to being given as a present, which will make a big difference to sales over the holiday season. It also doesn’t require the same expertise to use as a downloaded track. A CD essentially works like a little metal version of a vinyl. It is self explanatory to every generation how to make a CD player play a CD where as many people, particularly in older generations don’t know how to use a computer. This gives a CD a much wider potential audience. It may be beneficial for us to also consider selling music on physical media.

E-Commerce strategy

In order to plan our future direction we need to take stock of our current position. We can do this using a SWOT analysis.

Strengths:

1) We currently hold 35% of the UK downloaded music market, in business terms this equates to a majority. This is a large base of customers who will hopefully stay with us if we can continue to extend our services to compete with those of our competitors.

2) With the help of this plan we have a number of new revenue streams that we will hopefully implement soon. These will, if implemented properly, lead to an increase in our revenue and customer base.

Weaknesses:

1) We have not attempted to compete in the international downloaded music market. It makes no sense for us to only sell to UK customers. Traditional geographic limitations don’t apply on the internet. The complication of extending our system to sell music in many currencies is small compared to the benefit of increasing our potential customer base a hundred fold.

2) We don’t yet have systems in place to deal with things like gift vouchers or coupons that could be used for promotion.

Opportunities:

1) We current only allow our customers to purchase one song at a time off us. We could also allow them to purchase whole albums or customised content off us.

2) Although iTunes has secured a much better per song price than we could, they do not currently offer a subscription service. Our second most popular competitor, Napster does offer a subscription service but their customers have to continue paying for the service to continue using the content they’ve downloaded. If we can negotiate a subscription service that doesn’t lock the customer in we will be seen as the superior service.

3) iTunes is never advertised by itself. It’s always ‘iPod + iTunes’. If we can adopt a similar music player, develop our software to work seamlessly with it and negotiate cross promotion we will be doubling our exposure and simplifying the use of our service for the customers. This would also allow us to extend our service in a similar way to ‘Napster To Go’. We could begin to sell our content in high street stores using dedicated terminals or via internet television. This would allow our customer base to grow beyond the computer literate.

Threats:

1) File sharing networks offer the same service as us for free. Attempts to close these services down have so far been mostly ineffective. Although the close of Napster in 2001 was highly publicised it was ineffective as by this point many more services with more tenable legal position had emerged.

2) Many people expect to get something tangible like a CD or DVD when they buy music. One of the major tasks that faces the downloaded music industry is convincing people of the value of an intangible asset like a computer file.

3) Our primary competitors, Napster and iTunes continue have a larger international customer base than us. They have more exposure and more assets to extend their service with. We can’t hope to compete by trying to out compete in existing models, we need to develop new methods of selling music.

4) Our primary competitor, iTunes, has negotiated excellent prices with the content providers. Without the same economies of scale on our side it will be difficult to make the same deal.

In order to build what we have achieved so far I have compiled the following list of extension to our service that we could implement in the near future:

1) Develop a subscription service – We should develop a subscription service based on flat fee collective licensing that doesn’t trap customers in the same way as Napster’s services. This will be seen as a superior product by our target audience as it allows them to get good value for money from the service.

2) Custom CD service – In order to take advantage of gift buying in the holiday season, we should provide a service where customers select a set of tracks to be put on a CD or DVD, design a cover, and maybe add a personal message. The CD will then be burned and the packaging will be printed and sent to the customer for an additional fee. Basically what I’m proposing is a professionally produced version of a mix tape. This provides an extra income for us on top of the audio track sales and gives the customer something physical to give as a present. This is a service that none of the music-download companies I have found currently offers.

3) Ally ourselves with a popular MP3 player – A big part of iTunes success is its strong links and seamless operation with the iPod. By adopting a similar MP3 player, possibly the iRiver, we could tightly integrate our software with it, negotiate cross promotion and develop special terminals to sell our content in music stores, super markets, airports, train stations or anywhere else people are likely to be in need of quick entertainment.

4) Develop our international presence – We should extend the functionality of our site to allow it to sell music in many currencies. By accepting Euros and dollars we would be extending our potential customer base to twelve European countries, America and a number of smaller countries. This is potentially ten times as many customers.

5) Host a music community – We should allow customers to upload and sell their own content, taking a percentage of the income for administration. We could get a much better percentage of income from independent artists than we could off a major label with bargaining power and experience. Some of the artists we host may well end up becoming the next big thing. This would be great advertising for our company.

6) Incorporate gift vouchers, coupons and special offers – Gift vouchers are a popular Christmas present. Coupons distributed in the music culture magazines or by email like ‘Buy two tracks, get one free’ or ‘First five tracks free when you sign up’ would allow people to try our service before committing to it.

7) We could extend our system to recognise the sort of music a particular customer is likely to want based on past purchases. This would allow us to promote the right content to the right users so long as they’re logged in. Amazon has a similar technology built into their website and it has prompted me to buy books and DVD’s I wouldn’t have otherwise found. People often have very specific music tastes, so once we ascertain which genres of music a customer likes it will be a simple task to predict what they will purchase in the future.

Social/legal challenges

If we are to start selling internationally how should we approach pricing? The relative value of currencies changes daily. If for instance we were to offer our subscription service for 19.99 GBP per month, at the time of writing this would exchange to $35.00 USD and 30.00 EUR. When the exchange rate changes what should our policy be about updating prices? A policy that results in a rapidly changing price scheme will confuse our customers but a policy where prices can’t change quickly could result in us offering our service for too much or too little financial return. Another option would be for us to offer our service at different prices in different countries. This would allow us to better match the pricing trends in the local music industry. However, if we choose this option there is a possibility that our customers would start signing up in the region that has the lowest prices.

In order to implement a subscription service we will first need to negotiate a collective licensing scheme with the content owners. As discussed earlier a collective licensing scheme will likely lead to a reduced profit per track downloaded but an increased uptake of the service. We therefore have to convince the content owners that this model is potentially more profitable than the current model of setting a fixed price per unit or collection of music content.

We will need to protect the rights of the content owners by incorporating anti-piracy measures. Preventing piracy is a very difficult task that no one has yet mastered. Every time a new anti-piracy measure is introduced it is usually circumvented within three months (Moser, 2001). Apple currently uses fair play digital rights management and Napster currently uses Windows Media digital rights management. Both of these systems have already been circumvented. Content owners might not want a new service to operate on a security system that’s no longer effective.

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Putting MP3 audio files on the Internet isn’t something new or recently invented, technology, it has been making noise online for quite a number of years, but has never had been quite so popular and talked about as it is in today’s internet market. There is definitely a buzz around it today.

When I first started multimedia design seven years ago, MP3 audio files were already spread around the Internet. MP3’s popularity rose rapidly after Napster released their P2P file sharing network program in 1999.

Because the MP3 file size is much smaller then ‘MOV’, ‘WAV’ audio format, and has better sound quality, it didn’t take too long for MP3 to become a major digital audio format of Internet.

Today, it continues to dominate the Internet’s audio market, and has remained unchanged as the best choice among digital audio music formats.

Historically, there was a lack of Internet speed and the size of computer hard disks and ROM’s were relatively small and expensive. Especially MP3 files had to be converted from ‘MOV’ or ‘WAV’ file formats and the audio recording, editing hardware and software was very complicated to use, as well as very expensive and only professional studios had deep enough pockets to purchase.

Therefore, it had never been an easy tool for Internet marketers and web developers to use to their advantage. I can still remember the struggles to compress the audio files, and balancing the quality of the sound, to make it 28.8kbps modem compatible.

Very few business websites had web audio in their website, and the ones who did were only there as background music. There wasn’t any marketing purpose or strategy behind it. It was largely designers showing off their ‘advanced tricks’, trying to impress their employers, essentially an ‘e-toy’ for website designers.

Today, the Internet bandwidth is no longer a major impediment to Internet multimedia data transferring. Technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, computers now have massive capacities and the price of hardware has dramatically dropped, making it possible for web hosting company to provide a large amount of server space for website owners to store and transfer audio and video content, at an enormously low cost.

But the price of audio editing software remained relatively high, with more advanced features, but still posed a barrier to Internet marketers who intended to make audio a part of their Internet marketing.

This presented an opportunity for Internet Marketers and software developers. Together, they have worked out these issues, limiting seldom used advanced features, keeping only the most utilized, and developed a much more simple software for web audio recording.

This new web audio software and related services has been sold and used by Internet marketers and online business owners throughout the past few years and the results are quite convincing.

Some have claimed their sales conversion rate to have increased by 40) just by adding the audio sales litter on their web page. Can this be true? I will discuss this in more depth in another issue, but absolutely, web audio and video added a new ‘depth’, a new dimension to Internet marketing. It is mainly used for audio newsletters, web audio sales letters, audio testimonials, recorded tele-seminars, raining materials and more.

It is a very simple piece of software. If you know how to talk, and how to click, you can record your message and put it online. No experiences or technical know-how necessary, no special equipment needed, except a microphone connected to your computer.

I still use the advanced Pro version audio/video production software for my complicated projects, but I like to use this small, and feature-focused software for the smaller single task projects, because of the simplicity and the time saving. And the price of the software is so cheep!

For those who don’t have a computer, can’t figure out how to plug in the microphone into their computer, or are too lazy to do so, some marketers have even designed a telephone system for recording audio files for them.

You simply pick up phone, dial their number, record your message on their system, and they will deliver your audio file to your website. But you have to pay a monthly fee for your laziness, and you still have to pick up your phone and dial the number.

Some dedicated web hosting companies, such as the one I use, ThirdSphere, also jumped onto this new trend, including related features in their service package to gain sales. It provides Flash Audio Generator, Flash Video Generator software, and helps web designers to convert their pre-recorded audio and video file to a lightweight FLV file to be put online.

As a new highly effective Internet marketing method, streaming web audio and video will continue to grow in the Internet marketing realm and continue to grasp at Internet marketers and visitors’ attention for a number of yeas, until the day when all sites on Internet have a voice and talk to us.

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There has been an increasing number of legal movie download sites appearing online, since Clickbank and other began to rein in the illegal P2P sites that have been prevalent in the past. However, bootleg movies online downloads have not decreased very significantly because of this, which indicates that there is still a market for illegal downloads in spite of the increased availability of the legal equivalents.

Why is this? Is it because of the thrill of beating the big guys, or is just because it is illegal that people continue to do it? I have no idea, and while my own personal opinion on the matter is well known, I am puzzled as to why perfectly good sites that are licensed to allow downloading of movies from a membership site are ignored in favor of those that are patently promoting illegal downloading of copyrighted material.

Here is a brief synopsis of the legal and illegal sites currently available in terms of how the two types of site operate.

DVD Libraries

A solution to the file sharing software problem is being used by legal movie download sites such as Movies Capital that can offer 100% legal movie downloads without the use of file sharing software. The site consists of a vast library of DVDs that have been licensed for hiring online by means of downloading them. Once you have paid a membership fee, you have access to a massive library of legal DVDs.

There’s not much else to say about it really, because it’s legal and it’s inexpensive. Perhaps it would be more glamorous if it was illegal and offered bootleg movies online, but it’s not and is acceptable to both Google and Clickbank.

File Sharing

Also known as Peer to Peer, or P2P, this is what all the trouble is about. Members are able to download and use file sharing software that works thus:

a) Member A logs on, and is seeking the latest movie, game or music track so carries out a search using the site search box.

b) Members C-W all have the movie or track on their hard disk and member A sees a list showing how many different sources there are of each version of the south after movie, game or music track.

c) Member A clicks to download, and the file sharing software copies the file from the hard disks of those members that have it. The more than have it, the faster the download.

d) Member A has downloaded the movie, game or track and can view, play or listen to it.

There is nothing illegal with that sequence of events unless the downloaded file is protected by copyright – which most downloaded material is. In spite of what you might read, owning or using file sharing software is not illegal. Using it to download or copy copyright-protected material is illegal, and you can be prosecuted and face a heavy fine if caught.

Not many are caught in relation to the numbers that break the law, which is why the music and movie industry is trying to force the issue with internet providers. The want the websites of those involved in this trade to be removed from the net – in fact their entire internet access removed. I am not sure about the legality of that either, although it is unlikely that it will come to pass, at least not as long as using the software legally is not illegal.

You are advised, however, to stick to the legal movie download sites, and leave file sharing software and bootleg movies to others. Let them take the chances, although if you did decide to break the law in this way you would be unlikely to get caught, but don’t quote me on that!

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By: Pete Nisbet

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For people who live in rural or remote parts of the country where DSL and cable Internet services are not available, satellite Internet broadband has been a true lifesaver. Advances in satellite technology over recent years have made it possible for rural residents to get access to the same broadband connection speeds as people living in more densely populated areas. These connection speeds, of course, brings with them the ability to do a number of things that are not possible or efficient to do with the slow connection speeds that come with your typical dial-up service.

These things include everything from checking email more quickly, to streaming video and music content, to downloading software updates, to working and earning a degree and shopping from home, to chatting with friends and family on the other side of the world using VoIP software like Skype, to file sharing. Regardless of whether it is DSL, cable, or satellite Internet service that you use, with broadband connection speeds, you may feel like you can do just about anything you want. And, while this may be at least partially true, you must remember that not all of these things that you may want to do are things that you should do. This is especially important to keep in mind when it comes to file sharing.

File sharing allows people to access or download files from other people’s computers over the Internet. It is a cooperative process that depends on people linking into a network to post or upload their own files so that they are available for other people to download. Sometimes this is done through a social networking site, and other times it is done using peer-to-peer software.

The latter method of file sharing is especially popular on college campuses, where everyone is logged onto the same network. It is also quite controversial, particularly when it comes to the legality of sharing copyrighted material. If you are thinking about taking advantage of the fast connection speeds of your DSL, cable, or satellite broadband service to file share copyrighted material (by either downloading or uploading said material), you should know that doing so without permission is illegal. Since the person downloading is not paying for this material, or is not paying the proper person for this material, this is actually considered stealing.

What is not illegal is using file sharing techniques to share material that is not copyrighted, or material to which you own the rights. And a lot of non-professional and hopeful artists are using such forums for publicity reasons, to get their own work out there and be heard or seen. Thus, if you are an aspiring artist, having a DSL, cable, or satellite broadband connection can be good for your career.

When it comes to file sharing, really the most important thing to remember is to be cautious. Keep in mind that if you can be held responsible for illegally distributing as well as downloading copyrighted material, regardless of whether you are breaking the law knowingly or unintentionally. So, by all means, take advantage of the lightning-fast connection speeds available these days through DSL, cable, and satellite Internet services, but limit yourself to legal activities.

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The Record Industry Continues Battle Against Free Music Downloads
 by: Tim Somers

Movie and record producers alike are saying file-sharing networks that permit its users the ability to make copies from other network member’s computers are infringing on the copyright laws and costing billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The recording industry claims to have lost 25% of it’s revenues since computer, so called thieves, have been using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to obtain free music downloads.

The two latest file-sharing companies to be targeted by these copyright lawsuits are Grokster Ltd, known for its Grokster file-sharing software and StreamCast Networks Inc. from which the Morpheus free music downloading software is distributed.

Unlike Napster, Grokster and Morpheus put a spin on the popular file-sharing phenomenon. Instead of indexing the shared files like Napster did, these file-sharing products enables it’s network members to build their own indexes – thus allowing others within the network to download free music and movie files.

While some musicians are protesting they are being cheated by these illegal free music downloads – others are speaking out backing how music, movies, pictures and copy are being shared over the Internet.

Some music lovers actually use the file-sharing networks to check out an artists latest release before paying up to $18 for a CD that may only have one good song on it. You still will have those that will never make a purchase and continue to take advantage of the free music download networks.

Many file-sharing network users have said that using these networks is good for the music industry. File-sharing can bring listeners to smaller, independent bands that they may not otherwise hear on radio or in the mainstream.

With the likes of Apple’s iTunes store many have turned their backs on file-sharing networks paying 99 cents per song – Apple claims to sell more than 1 millions songs everyday. Although iTunes is limited still, thus giving file sharing networks a void to fill the unlimited access to music and movies that may otherwise not be able from iTunes.

In late 2003 record companies started suing individuals that were downloading free music. With file-sharing networks like Grokster and Morpheus it will be much harder for the recording industry to track down files that are uploaded by individual users.

With the Supreme Court now involved they are expected to make some type of ruling in June 2005 on what if any action should be taken against the makers of file-sharing network software.

The wrong decision could discourage the future development of products like the iPod or other file-sharing software programs that could be used for legal purposes.

Since Grokster and Morpheus do not monitor or have any knowledge of who or what is being downloaded, a federal judge in Los Angeles and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the copyright infringement charges against both these file-sharing networks.

Based on the 1984 ruling of the Supreme Court that stated the use of Sony Betamax, which allowed users to make copies at home of copyrighted TV programs, was legal.

The recording industries angle last week was that the approach companies like Grokster and Morpheus are making by advertising their software will provide access to free copies of copyrighted materials should allow them to be sued and shut down.

While the jury may be out on this one for sometime – file sharing networks and free music downloads will continue with most users not really worrying about getting sued, since most do not download free music in excess of a few files per month.

Copyright 2005 – Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC

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As it is we had a great thing going what with the information age on and helping us all in our different fields! Now with free file sharing the help and support that we used to receive from the internet has suddenly been taken to a different level altogether.

This in effect has changed the way we used to conduct business and brought in place an unbelievable sea of data, information and whatever else that one could wish for floating around freely on the cyberspace. All one has to do is to go the right site and gain access to all that one is searching for. And all this is absolutely free!

There are several web sites that are solely devoted to online file sharing. Even otherwise, virtually all the innumerable web sites that are there in the web have at least one link in their home pages that is solely meant for people to download, as well as upload files online.

Thus, the Internet, under the new arrangement, sites not only encourage to obtain free access to other people’s documents, files, pictures, videos, etc., but also upload whatever that you have. It is thus, a very happy everyone wins situation.

An ethical element obviously comes into the picture here. You are free to use the data and other material found on the net that someone has willingly uploaded and want people like you to benefit from. But all the same, principles demand that you do not call the same yours. As that will be violating copyright and intellectual property rights.

This means, everyone from students, faculty, working professionals, doctors, lawyers, practically everyone that ever needed to research, or work or study on some subject and assignment for personal and professional requirements. Online File Sharing has, therefore, made life unbelievably easy.

Free file sharing is a concept that is here to stay. Most of the sites have caught onto this novel idea and have made the required infrastructural inputs on their respective sites. One particular site has education and knowledge sectors as its domain.

The one factor that may be highlighted here is that even as you are eager to reach data and material that you are searching for, it makes sense to upload files online that are yours. After all, there is bound to be data and material that you have created over the years in your area of specialization. This is bound to immensely help others. And this is the only way this concept of free file sharing will succeed.

As always there is a note of caution. This is to do with the risk of getting your computers and systems down with some or the other virus. Since a sea of data, images, videos are all freely floating around the web space, the chances of spam, and virus getting active is far more. This will slow down or hamper your computer. Or worse, it can even lead to a complete break down of your system, thereby leading to loss of hard earned data. Hence, one has to be little cautious regarding the sources that one is trying to get data from.

Otherwise, online file sharing and uploading of files online is the one factor that all of us can benefit from immensely.

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Rapidshare hasn’t lost its touch with the masses as their favored file hosting solution on the internet but most of the people are peeved over the fact that they have significantly minimized their download-quota. They are chiefly indignated over two points. Firstly, they feel that free Rapidshare download quota should not have been reduced for premium users. Secondly, they believe that free users should not have faced the hard-hitting speed decrease.

Users worldwide can find files hosted on Rapidshare in myriad ways. One of the techniques is to include the various parameters of Google search which will only look for Rapidshare files for the entire file and its subcategories being asked by a user.

There are many other brilliant options just as well. Another one deals in Rapidshare search engine. These engines have their own information base of files that is hosted at the file hoster. The databases are attached to the latest upgrade and links to Rapidshare files directly to feasibly reach out for files.

Sites which maintain their own databases are considered to be the most effective. Apart from this, there are other passable sites which offer Rapidshare file searches.

Google custom search engine only amalgamates the concept of Google search directives with a personalized search engine that generates moolah for the creator of the search engine. A search button can help with the identification. A search button presenting ‘Google search’ is far from being a website worth its personal database. It is just a custom google search instrument.

As mentioned earlier, many Rapidshare files utilize their personal database. Few instances of such files are:

RS find

RS Rapidshare

Rapidshare Data

Rapid TVPHP

File tubes

Apart from this and few other names, most of the Rapidshare search engines are no different than Google search engines.

No one can be foolish enough to give Rapidshare premium accounts for free Rapidshare downloads. After all, it is the very best file sharing program doing the market rounds. For this purpose, we need software that makes us feel like Rapidshare members. Let’s find out a few free Rapidshare download tools.

Rapidshare Link Grabber

Rapidshare golden pack

Rapidshare Harvest

Many people provide with their own alternatives to Rapidshare. They promote their own file sharing space with unlimited download possibility and 150 MB space. They still fall miserably short. We hope that Rapidshare just finds some way to bring back the irritated customers back to their folds.

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By: Sean Anderson

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

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Not sure how to create a pivot-table in Excel? You don’t know how to put together a PowerPoint presentation? Sparky! This is where a file sharing program would come in handy. And you laughed at those of us who bothered to show up to Information Systems class. Youd think file sharing would be rather self-explanatory. You have files " you want to share them. Simple enough, to be sure, but the file sharing world is rife with scoundrels. Be sure you take precautions and install credible software from credible vendors.

These day, your typical file sharing network is based on the peer-to-peer model. What if youre peerless, you say? You imp. Shape up " and pay attention. A file sharing network will allow multiple people to access the same file. So, if your department has one monthly report, everyone on the team can access and modify the document.

A major benefit of the peer-to-peer model, or P2P as we insiders call it, is the fact you arent required to load one file in order to access another. None of his quid pro quo business around here. That is not to say anyone can access anyones files. Your peers may only allow certain files, folders, or drives to be accessed. You wouldnt want anyone to be able to go poking around in your financial statements or folder full of love letters to Ozzy Osborn now would you? Your MP3s are an entirely different matter " I always thought you had great taste in music.

Another perk of the file sharing phenomenon is the access. Approved peers can access a file from any computer anywhere in the world. Is your boss in Frankfurt? Did he forget his report? No worries, move the file to a shared drive or folder and he can access it instantly " is the speed of light instantaneous? Well, its fast enough. And if he or she ask you to modify the report, you simply open it, clean up your messy handiwork, save it, and give him the heads up.

After the IT guy installs your file sharing software, make sure the program has some kind of search capability. If it doesn’t grab the IT guy by his fanny pack and get him to uninstall it. Picture a hellish scenario where youre not sure where your boss left the report. Now, picture having to search through each folder and drive. Now, picture yourself at the unemployment office. Always make sure you have access to a search function. Indeed, some file sharing programs dont and they should be avoided like the plague. So, stay frosty and start sharing wisely.

By: James Gilbert Pynn

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

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The popularity of the Ares file sharing software has enjoyed a surge in popularity of late. With the demise of sometimes illegal and often spyware-ridden peer-to-peer platforms such as Napster, Kazaa, Limewire and Vuze (formerly Azureus), Ares appears as something of a knight in shining armor.

Ares software runs on the huge Ares and BitTorrent networks, and this means that its users have access to a massive library of shared files. Not only is the implementation of the software novel and efficient, the use of the interface has been carefully thought out and caters for experts and newcomers alike. The software is well maintained by a group of enthusiastic programmers, and the fact that Ares received awards from prestigious on-line magazines comes as no surprise to anyone that has used it.

The decision to download Ares has being taken by many millions of people, and it is thanks to user friendly software like Ares that this is possible. Older methods of file sharing were – by virtue of them being complex, technical and rather unfriendly – only within the grasp of those people, normally younger members of society, who were willing to invest considerable time to learn. With Ares this is not longer the case, and the proliferation into more diverse areas of the population has only served to fuel Ares’ skyward trajectory.

Sales of downloaded music are set to overtake CD sales in 2012, according to official reports. It is notable that these reports do not take into account the sharing and downloading of music from peer-to-peer networks; many sources suggest that if these figures were considered then overtaking maneuver would have come and gone some time ago.

File sharing once had a rather bad reputation, especially amongst the media whose opinions were funded by those who thought that they stood to lose most from free music downloads. Opinion across the board has now changed and some of the biggest opponents to the file sharing movement – Sony BMG et al – have leaped into business with organizations seeking to develop free music into a financially viable industry. Make no mistake: file sharing is here to stay, and Ares will no doubt be leading the charge well into the future.

By: Irvine

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

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