Share Responsibly
There are currently over 240 million users
downloading and trading files legally on
file-sharing networks. You can, for example, legally
download music from over 850 bands, over 20,000 live
concerts as well as have access to multiple software
titles and games. File sharing is not illegal so
long as you abide by all relevant copyright laws.
Sharing copyrighted material without the permission
to do so is illegal.
AllCoolMusic
does not condone piracy or breaking copyright
laws. The MP3 sharing tools available on through
our members area are powerful search tools & we
recommend that you use your discretion when
downloading music and movie files.
See News.com Article:
Federal Judge Rules: File-swapping tools are
legal
Original works of authorship, including literary,
dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain
intellectual compositions are protected by copyright
law. If a person publicly performs, reproduces,
distributes copies, or displays works without
consent of the copyright owner could be in violation
of the law. Go to
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ and learn more
about U.S. copyright law. Purchasing a membership in
AllCoolMusic.com does not give you license to download
or upload copyright material. AllCoolMusic.com
implores you to respect copyright laws and share
responsibly.
Click
here for important information from the US
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the risk and
use of P2P software.
How
can I stay legal?
Stay
legal and avoid breaking the law. Quick steps to stay legal:
- Make
sure there are no potentially infringing files in your
shared folders - meaning only files that are in the public
domain, for which you have permission to share or are
available under pro-sharing licenses.
- Remove
potentially misleading files names that might be confused
with the name of an RIAA artist or song (e.g. "Usher"
or "Madonna") from your shared folder.
- Disable
the "sharing" or "uploading" features
on your search program to prevent other users on the network
from getting copies of files on your computer. Music companies
are focused on finding people who share thousands of files
on their computers with the rest of the community. If
you don't share - you reduce the risk.
File sharing has been a hot
topic in several countries around the world. Below are samples
of court decisions from the United States of America, Canada,
and the Netherlands.
USA Court Decision
Decentralized
File-sharing Tools Ruled Legal
Streamcast and Grokster have won a major court decision in Los
Angeles, shifting the tides of the on-line P2P legal war. Federal
court Judge Stephen Wilson has dismissed much of the studios' claims
in their lawsuits against them, stating that Morpheus and Grokster
were not liable for copyright infringements that took place using
their software.
See News.com
Article:
Federal Judge Rules: File-swapping tools are legal
The ruling stated loud and clear that innovating decentralized
peer-to-peer Gnutella-like software is perfectly legal, and
shouldn't be deemed illegal in the courts. The courts compared the
technology with the innovation of the original Sony videocasette
recorder (VCR).
Fred von Lohmann of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated the case is far from
over, but that the case sends a "strong message to the technology
community that the court understands the risk to innovation" the
case could represent
The Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA) offered no comment, but are of course
issuing an appeal to the ruling already. Published By Mike Darrah -
April 25, 2003
Canadian Court
Decision
Canada's Federal
Court has ruled against a motion which would have allowed the music
industry to begin suing individuals who make music available
on-line. He said that downloading a song or making files available
in shared directories does not constitute copyright infringement
under the current Canadian law.
"Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled Wednesday that the Canadian
Recording Industry Association did not prove there was copyright
infringement by 29 so-called music uploaders. Without the names,
CRIA can't begin filing lawsuits against the alleged high-volume
music traders, identified only as John and Jane Does. It also
reaffirms what the Copyright Board of Canada has already ruled --
downloading music in this country is not illegal. Von Finckenstein
said that downloading a song or making files available in shared
directories, like those on Kazaa, does not constitute copyright
infringement under the current Canadian law. "No evidence was
presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or
authorized the reproduction of sound recordings," he wrote in his
28-page ruling. "They merely placed personal copies into their
shared directories which were accessible by other computer users via
a P2P service."
With all of the usual cavets about appeals, this decision makes it
practically impossible to prosecute file sharers in Canada. von
Finkenstein has gone well beyond the idea that downloading is legal
in Canada. By expressly mentioning "merely placing personal copies
into their shared directories" does not constitute distribution he
has blown a huge hole in the arguments which swirled around the
whole question of the legality of uploading in Canada.
(Published April 1, 2004
http://grep.law.harvard.edu/article.pl?sid=04/04/01/0411227&mode=thread)
European Court
Decision
The Supreme Court
of the Netherlands has thrown out an appeal by music industry
lobbyists who wanted the popular Kazaa file-sharing software to be
ruled illegal.
The victory for Kazaa, which follows similar US rulings in favour of
peer-to-peer (P2P) software firms Grokster and Morpheus, is a huge
blow to the music industry. It has fought a long battle to close
down file-sharing networks and criminalise the software that makes
file swapping illegal.
The Dutch decision
means that the developers of the software cannot be held responsible
for how individuals use it.
(Dinah Greek,
vnunet.com 19 Dec 2003,
http://www.pcw.co.uk/news/1151673)
