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The Ethics of File Sharing Software
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical problem that file sharing software creates when used to transfer copy written material. It is contested that the very existence of this software promotes piracy. The paper will focus on the creators of the file sharing software, knowing that the user employs their product illegally. The software creators (Kazaa, Grokster, Morpheus, etc) are claiming that they cannot control what the end user does with its product. In fact, this point has been upheld by a recent court ruling.
As music and movies are now available almost exclusively in digital formats (CD and DVDs), the ease of copying them to computers is easy. And with the Internet, the ability to share via Napster, or Kazaa, is just as easy.
How File Sharing Works[i]
File sharing popularity increased with the birth of Napster. It allowed users to connect to each other through a central server. Napster pioneered the concept of peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P). With Napster, individual people stored files that they wanted to share (typically MP3 music files) on their hard discs and shared them directly with other people. Users ran a piece of Napster software that made this sharing possible. Each user machine became a mini server.
By installing Napster software, your computer becomes a small server in the Napster universe. You can now contact the main Napster server for your request, but if your request was not available on the main server, then a search is conducted on all the computers connected to the Napster main server at that time. The song or file is downloaded directly from the resident computer. Napster evolved into this approach after i...
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... Alpha Books, 2002)
James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003)
James Fieser PhD., Bradley Dowden PhD., The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2003, University of Tennessee at Martin, 17 November 2003 http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/
[i] Marshall Brain, How File Sharing Works, Nov. 2003
<http://computer.howstuffworks.com/file-sharing.htm>
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Ibid
[iv] Claudia Roda, Usenet (Usegroups), Sept. 2003 <http://www.ac.aup.fr/~roda/cs100/Ch0701WhatIsHowItWorks.shtml>
[v] David Bruce Ingram, PhD, Jennifer Parks, PhD, The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Ethics, (Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002) 138
[vi] James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003) 92-93
[vii] Ibid 77
[viii] Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, (New York: Penguin Books, 1961) 27