Illegal Music Swapping

916 Words2 Pages

This paper describes various forms of DRM (Digital Rights Management), the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and methods of bypassing the afore mentioned subjects. Different forms of transmission of DRM protected material also has a direct relationship with what kind of files are protected by the DMCA and will be discussed. This paper will also discuss how law makers are attempting to halt illegal music sharing and how these attempts are in vain.

Illegal Music Swapping

Illegal digital music swapping is something that millions of people do every day, even children in the elementary school age range know how to “torrent” music from the internet. The definition of illegal music swapping is a very loose statement, since the DMCA (Digital Millineum Copyright Act) has guidelines that vary for different types of file. For instance a digital music file encrypted using the Apple DRM (Digital Rights Management) might receive more protection from the DMCA than a file that is encrypted with the Microsoft Windows Media DRM. DRM determines whether or not the device that the file is being accessed by meets the requirements for that file. In the application iTunes if your computer is not authorized to play music purchased by another user of the iTunes Store, the DRM in iTunes will detect this and will not allow you to play the song. DRM also covers a song released in one particular format for a particular player from being used for another player application, such as an iTunes DRM protected file will not play in Windows Media Player, even if the codec (language used to decipher different types of video and audio files such as .mp3, and .wma) is supported by a player the content has the DRM embedded inside of the file itself.

The fir...

... middle of paper ...

...ed “torrenting”. When something is “torrented”, it is spread across multiple computers in hundred of fragments. After someone has there “torrenting” software setup properly it tracks the fragments, downloads them, and re-assembles them into a duplicate of the original file. Torrenting is most common because it provides a degree of anonymity too music sharing, it is safety in numbers.

From the number of people involved in illegal digital music sharing, any law attempting tohalt this activity seems frivolous. Also after the original file has been modified, the DMCA does not see this file as breaking any laws because it is not exactly the same as the original. If a user torrented an original file they would be breaking the laws set forth in the DMCA, but if the user modified the file in a small way the DMCA would not be able to find this person guilty of anything.

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