KaZaA is Ethical and Legal

KaZaA is Ethical and Legal

INTRODUCTION

The Internet is undoubtedly one of the greatest innovations of the past hundred years. The Internet provides a means for people all over the world to share information readily and rapidly. Like all technological innovations, the Internet has provided a better means for information to be exchanged. The down side of this is that the Internet can be used to transmit illegal information more easily.

KaZaA is an Australian company that offers a means for internet users all over the world to exchange files of all types, with one another. Many users have been using KaZaA as a means to exchange music, movie, and program files, which is illegal based on the laws of many nations. The recording industry of the United States claims that they are losing money, as many users are using KaZaA to distribute music freely. Currently the United States is trying to sue Sharman Networks, the company that distributes KaZaA. It is not right for the United States to sue KaZaA both ethically and legally. First of all KaZaA is a company outside of the United States who has created a software program that allows the exchange of files. The problem is that people are using the software to illegally exchange files, so it is the users who are violating laws, not the distributor of the software. If the United States wanted to go after the source of the problem, they should go after the people who are using the software illegally, and not those who created the means to trade software illegally.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

KaZaA is a file exchange program, that is operated by an Australian company that is incorporated out of Vanuatu, a small pacific island nation. KaZaA provides a means for people to exchange fil...

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...Millennium Copyright Act, Berkeley Technology Law Journal vol. 16, 2001 (pp. 855-876).

5. Woody, Todd. The Race to Kill Kazaa, Wired Magazine, Issue 11.02, February 2003, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/kazaa_pr.html

6. Flags courtesy of ITA's Flags of All Countries used with permission.

ENDNOTES

1 Todd Woody, The Race to Kill Kazaa, Wired Magazine, Issue 11.02, February 2003,

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/kazaa_pr.html

2 Roy Mark, Judge: Kazaa Can Be Sued in U.S., Internet News, 13 January 2003,

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/print.php/1568591

3 Paul Hardwick, 2002, Privacy Digest, 7 October 2002,

http://www.privacydigest.com/2002/10/07

4 Ross Buckly, Overseas Law: Erosion of the rule of law in the United States, The

Australian Law Journal vol. 76, March 2002, 161.

5 Hardwick.

6 Woody.

7 Mark.