First A. Author,

Abstract

Since the birth of BitTorrent, it has become more popular and has caused multiple lawsuits. This report will discuss how torrents affect the economy of artists. Today copyright trolls are the ones bringing infringement cases, variously abuse the judicial system in hopes of extorting a quick settlement from a potential BitTorrent user. Many cases that have been presented by copyright trolls have defective personal jurisdiction, are misjoined and also present insufficient evidence infringement. The method used for this research documents analysis whereby data was collected from articles in trusted websites and online libraries. The paper also seeks to discuss the theories of application with the results and finding based on the interacting system between technology with law, ethics, and innovation. The paper will also discuss the future of BitTorrent technology by looking at the connections between Ethics, law and innovation and how they related to each other.

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Introduction

Torrents have been alive for a while now, and every day, thousands of torrents get uploaded to popular websites such as Kickasstorrents and thepiratebay. Data collected in 2011 indicated that 24% of global internet involved uploading and downloading pirate content whereby BitTorrent accounted for 18% of all internet traffic. Illegal downloading itself in the united states was recorded at 18%. Even though there have been structures put in place to try and stop illegal downloading, websites continue to thrive. Even with the major crackdown, nothing has been able to change in regards to illegal intent traffic.

Although the Recording Industry Association of America took upon itself to prosecute individuals who downloaded copyrighted material, they realized that it was hard to build a case on the accused regarding collecting evidence, expensive to litigate, generated bad press and they never demonstrated any impact. Today copyright trolls are the ones bringing infringement cases, variously abuse the judicial system in hopes of extorting a quick settlement from a potential BitTorrent user. Many cases that have been presented by copyright trolls have defective personal jurisdiction, are misjoined and also present insufficient evidence infringement.

The whole question surrounding the cases of BitTorrent is its effect and how it harms artists. This report will discuss the impact these small-sized torrent files have on the economy of artists and producers of digital material. The focus will be on how torrents which are a part of online piracy take effect on the revenue the artists make, and how the numbers they make now differ from the numbers they made before torrents became so popular.

This report discusses one of the most important aspects of torrents and their usage which is the laws that are enforced on torrents at our time now, and how the different governments are handling such a serious matter.

Problem statement

Piracy is a big part of internet users' lives. In the last few years, Torrents have become more popular and have caused multiple lawsuits. Throughout this report, we will discuss How torrents affect the economy of artists. The problem statement is something most users do not think about, and that makes it more interesting for us to discuss and explain from different perspectives. We will discuss what kind of problems & advantages torrents cause in our everyday life.

Method

To be able to provide a solution to our problem statement, we collected articles from reliable and reputable websites, as it was important to avoid sources that only provided their own opinion on this matter. Before choosing the provided information in this report, a comparison of multiple resources was made to supply the correct facts. Funds were collected from digital libraries, scholarly literature, and articles published on the internet. Information from Wikipedia articles was checked for factuality by going through the references attached to them. The information we collected help us render a solution to the problem statement we provided, as well as find the relationship between Torrents and law, ethics, and innovation.

Theory

There are two types of connections defined in this report. A-connections represent the relationship between the Torrents and law, ethics, and innovation, while B connections represent how these connections are correlative. The results will contain these concepts in addition to focusing on two important concepts of both connections: The relationship between the technology and law (A-connections) and how ethics and law are interrelated (B-connections).

Results and discussion

Graphic overview of interacting systems

Overview of A and B connections

connections Description

A.1 Copyright material and law

A.2 The fundamentalist protectors and the fundamentalist libertarians

A.3 History from 1990 to date

B.1 Bad reputation effect potential users

B.2 Illegal, Up to use vs. Put it down

5 Description between A and B connections that are defined in figure 5.1.1

Description of technology

Torrents or the BitTorrent protocol were invented in 2001 and started gaining popularity in 2004 when the inventor Bram Cohen released his first BitTorrent client to the world. Torrents are just a small part of the peer-to-peer network that was very popular in the 20th century. It is worth to mention that peer-to-peer file sharing had affected the economy of artists for a long time before the first lawsuits were filed against one of the most popular music sharing programs Napster, which had to shut down its service in late 1999.

At the beginning of the 21st century, music and video sharing started to gain incredible popularity, especially when most people had access to a computer and an internet connection. This was only the beginning of the effects of torrents on the economy of the artists because it didn't only affect the music industry, but almost everything that can be digitalized. Popular programs like Napster have gotten many lawsuits until they were taken down, and it is important to mention that torrents became very popular because of these services that got shut down.

Traditional servers connected to the internet are conventional when a user wants to download a small file from them. They have limited bandwidth and errors can occur if they are being used by many users simultaneously, especially if they host broad types of data. This is where BitTorrent comes into play, as it handles the distribution of files in different ways than a standard server would.

With BitTorrent, large files are broken into small bits, and these bits are then shared between users. That means if a user has half of the content of a file, they can upload it to other users and download the other half from other users simultaneously. To download any data that is shared on the BT network, one has to possess a Torrent file that contains metadata that is information about the desired data, and trackers that are servers that keep track of who has all or some parts of it. The trackers categorize users into three categories:

Peers - Users who have parts of the data.

Leeches: Users who are in the process of downloading the data.

Seeders: Users who have the complete data file.

This means the more seeds a torrent file has, the faster the downloading process is.

Law

As most people that use the internet know, downloading copyrighted material is illegal. The BitTorrent protocol allows users to download music, movies, books, and others. Since BitTorrent developed in 2001, the law has changed when it comes to downloading copyright material. On 23 November 2005, the CEO of BitTorrent Inc and the Motion Picture Association of America, came together and signed a deal to remove the links to the illegal content on the official BitTorrent website.

Copyright owners have tried different tactics that would reduce the ability to download their work. At the beginning of 2010 is when the US Copyright Group started to collect the IP address of the BitTorrent users that download illegal movies on behalf of the movie makers. Users that got caught got fined between 1000$ to 3000$. It came up to 16200 lawsuits between March and September 2010 on these users.

The copyright law has changed in the last couple of years, where other countries have changed the copyright law too. Bombay HC came out with the decision that viewing pirated films were not an offense. Even though Switzerland's laws are strict, it is legal to use pirated material only if it's for personal use. In Spain, digital piracy is allowed, as long as you don't make any money out of it and the same is in the Netherland. Mexico, on the other hand, has no laws when it comes to piracy or copyright, so you're free to use pirated material. The Norwegian copyright laws have some of the same decisions as Switzerland that it's not illegal if it's for personal use, but selling and making money out of it will make it illegal.

Technology related to Law

It is not illegal to download files using BitTorrent method. However, downloading copyrighted content using BitTorrent method is illegal. Torrenting music and movies are legal and for this to occur, they must be copyright protected. Since BitTorrent is believed to have high volumes of illegal files, it is easier for the user of this application to get into problems with the law. Although this is the case, copyright enforcers have always gone for torrent hosting sites leaving individual peers.

Inherently, there is nothing illegal about BitTorrent, and it should be treated like any other computer application program for moving files. The illegality of BitTorrent comes in when users use this application file transferring program for illegal purposes like uploading and downloading copyrighted materials. If an individual uses BitTorrent to upload his/her homemade movie or music and share it with the world, then that is legal. The illegal of it comes when one wants to download the latest movie or music from BitTorrent that holds copyrights. The legality of BitTorrent can be compared to the legality of guns. For instance, it is legal for one to own or buy a gun. One purpose of owning a gun is that one can take it to a shooting range and have a great time which is something legal. However, if one takes the same guns and uses it to rob a bank, then that means he/she has committed a felony. This means that in comparison to other types of tools and software's, the legality of BitTorrent depends on individuals, they have the freedom of using it for illegal or legal means.

The artists who are the owners of copyrighted materials always know and are aware of file sharing programs like BitTorrent. Users have been sued concerning uploading and downloading copyrighted materials. There are significant penalties for individuals who break the law by violating copyrights, and they have the freedom of contacting an attorney should one face legal action for any illegal conduct via BitTorrent.

When sharing files, there are also some risks that come with it. When using unreliable sources, it is easy for an individual to download malware. This is the reason why most torrent hosting sites take more consideration the reputation of the user and try their best in maintaining the integrity of the site. This sites also have social commenting platforms to allow users share information on their experience with the files they have downloaded. The best approach to a safe download is from a reliable site and consideration of vies from other users.

The unregulated internet has become of the of most democratic and representative feature of the industrial society today. Although this is the case, copyright fundamentalism has been a stumbling block threatening this medium of exchange. Since file sharing is done through decentralized networks and private means, copyright law canno...