Ethical and Legal Issues Surrounding Peer-to-Peer File Sharing - Essay Example

Student Name Professor Name ID # Date Ethical and Legal Issues surrounding Peer-to-Peer File Sharing In the past few decades, there have emerged a wide variety of communication mechanisms that are used to communicate between various devices. These mechanisms are used for different purposes in different scenarios. In this scenario, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is a popular communication mechanism that is widely used for sharing different kinds of files such as games, music files, movies, and various software applications between computers. In view of the fact that P2P file sharing involves the sharing of different types and formats of files, hence it involves a wide variety of legal and ethical issues. Basically, movies and music files are also shared using this communication mechanism so it can involve various legal issues such as copyright issues. These issues can be problematic in the scenario of P2P networks. The research has shown that the ratio of legal and ethical issues concerning P2P is increasing with the passage of time (Feldman). The basic objective of this research is to discuss some of the legal and ethical aspects associated with P2P networks. This research shows that different kinds of legal and ethical issues can cause serious challenges for P2P networks. Without a doubt, the information technology (IT) in every form brings a number of advantages and opportunities for its users, however at the same time it also brings about a number of ethical, social, and political issues. Additionally, ethical issues consist of both social and legal issues. For instance, at present, customer service has turned out to be one of the most important organizational tasks or services which engender a large number of ethical challenges and issues. In many cases, the lack of education and training in the subject of technology use has made a large number of individuals to take part in activities that question their ethics (Boateng). Basically, ethics is a set of rules and principles that tell the individual whether they are wrong or right, acting as free of charge ethical agents, from which people draw guidance while making decisions to direct their actions and behavior. Without a doubt, the information technology (IT) has brought wonderful advantages and opportunities to business organizations as well as individuals. It has modernized and revolutionized all the fields of life. However, at the same time it has caused a wide variety of ethical issues for individuals, business organizations and cultures for the reason that they open new horizons for strong societal change, and as a result intimidate offered distributions of authority, capital, privileges, and responsibilities (Laudon and Laudon). In addition, similar to any other technologies, for instance, electricity, steam engines, the telephone, fax machine and the radio, information technology can be utilized to accomplish social development; on the other hand, it can also be used by the bad people to carry out illegal activities. For instance, they can use it to threaten cherished social values and commit crimes. In this scenario, the advancements of information technology will create advantages and opportunities for a large number of businesses and individuals as well as expenses for others. In addition, information technology has given a great deal more pressure to ethical issues through the developments in communication mediums such as P2P file sharing (Laudon and Laudon). Though, P2P networks have already been in use in different forms, however the appearance of different file sharing capabilities is believed to be a new development, which have raised a wide variety of ethical and legal issues. Basically, P2P network is a kind of networking arrangement in which different computers are known as nodes, instead of the client and server. Due to the absence of any server all the nodes are responsible for computing power, storage and bandwidth. As a result, when the number of nodes increases the entire process of communication becomes more improved instead of slowing down due to heavy traffic. In addition, each node in the network contains the data requested by other nodes so the chances of systems failures also decrease. Additionally, the concept of P2P networking offers a large number of benefits and the majority of organizations have used them for various communication purposes. However, there are serious issues involved in this kind of communication framework. For instance, in this communication framework data is communicated among all nodes so any node that is not authorized to get access can access the data freely (Robinson). Actually, the use of P2P networks allows millions of users all over the world to share files online. Regardless of formats of files, the use file sharing allows users to get access to a wealth of information. There exist a large number of software applications through which users can easily connect their computers to a casual network of other computers running the same software. In this scenario, these software applications allow users to connect to each other using this software once. Normally, a minor cost is associated with these software applications, however a large number of applications are available free of cost. However, this kind of method sometimes comes with a variety of security risks and threats. For instance, when someone is connected to a file-sharing software they can grant access to an unknown user who should not be able to get access to a private file. In the same way, a user can unintentionally download contents and files that are protected by the copyright laws (University of Washington; Lohmann). The concept of copyrights is not fresh for those who regularly download files, watch movies, or listens to music. A very simple idea to explain copyright is to understand the view that all great expressions and products have an origin. For instance, a creative piece of work (i.e. music, art, writing, film, or computer software) belongs to its creator. Additionally, these creative works, ideas, expressions and inventions are very precious for their inventors and must be protected, however these ideas or thoughts are not known as copyright (Feldman). The illegal access to this copyrighted material can cause serious legal consequences to the user. In view of the fact there are various copyright laws are associated with copyrighted material. Hence, the users are not allowed to share or download copyrighted content and files like that movie or music without the authorization of the content owner. In this scenario, industries creating these contents such as movies or music records have taken significant actions in an attempt to stop unlawful file sharing and downloading. In fact, these laws have created many significant risks for a large number of students at the nation's universities and colleges. For example, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has started to inform national universities and colleges via letters demonstrating explicit assumed consequences of prohibited file sharing and appeal the colleges and universities to send this letter to the person that a college or university identifies as being engaged with illegal file-sharing. This letter is known as a "Pre-Settlement Letter" that is forwarded to an accused person in order to let them know that he or she has been given a particular timeline for making a settlement with the Recording Industry Association of America by visiting a nominated web site. In this scenario, the user has to enter specific information, and pay a certain amount of fee which normally raises between $3,000 and $5,000, but at times significantly more (University of Washington; Lohmann). Additionally, the letter says that if the defaulter does not pay this amount and does not settle this issue, the Recording Industry Association of America will file a charge and after this case the defaulter will not be able to settle this issue. Moreover, in many cases, these downloadable files contain a wide variety of viruses and malware which can cause serious security challenges for a computer user because these viruses are automatically copied with the files. There exists a large number of laws that apply to this kind of file-sharing mechanisms (University of Washington; Lohmann). It is an admitted fact that the communication technology such as P2P file sharing makes it easier for the bad people to bring together, integrate, and dispense their criminal activities. Some of the cases that can cause various ethical issues and concerns can include misuse of data and information, giving a free rein to new concerns regarding the suitable utilization of customers’ information, the security of individual privacy, and the protection of intellectual property and rights. Sometime, the staff members of an organization having extraordinary skills and knowledge can deceive IT resources and business systems by using fake information and records and redirecting money at a level unbelievable in the pre-computer age. Sometimes people add a virus to the files. When the users download a file a virus enters into their computer and this virus can spread from one computer to another. This practice is totally unethical (Laudon and Laudon). In addition, this kind of communication mechanism can be an excellent platform for hackers. They can use it for conducting their illegal tasks. For instance, they can connect their programs with downloadable files, which can be downloaded by users. When a user downloads that file, it allows the hacker to get entry to the system. In this scenario, a hacker can get access to a computer and copy or destroy all the assets existing on a computer. Moreover, they can use it to access information stored in a computer. In this scenario, they can steal various secret information such as passwords, credit card information, and various other security information. Furthermore, P2P networks can also be exploited by various attackers. They can get access to various computers and use their resources to launch attacks on others. They can use various important assets and computer resources without the permission and knowledge of the user. In this scenario, P2P networks create a wide variety of ethical and security issues for their users (Laudon and Laudon). Although the age of the Internet came more than thirty years ago and the age of the World Wide Web began approximately ten years ago, people have just started to deal with the ethical concerns and scenarios caused by these technological developments. Additionally, we cannot determine one person’s ethics in opposition to another person’s need to earn income or cause confusion, which has been made much simpler by the Internet. The U.S. government has now started to develop and implement laws and regulations to deal with cybercrime; however, it is not easy to stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals (Laudon and Laudon). Users can deal with these situations and avoid ethical and legal issues associated with P2P file sharing by adopting some careful measures. In this scenario, users should pay a great deal of attention to ethical and legal issues associated with P2P file sharing. They should learn about laws and regulations surrounded by this kind of communication. Before downloading and copying a file the user must identify any ethical and legal concerns associated with that file. Users can also make use of a wide variety of technologies such as firewalls in order to avoid such consequences. In this scenario, an illegal user will not be able to hack your identity. In addition, they should also safeguard anytime they are using a P2P file sharing site in order to avoid ethical and legal issues of P2P file sharing (Feldman). In conclusion, this paper has discussed some of the important aspects associated with P2P file sharing. P2P file sharing is not a new communication mechanism as it has been in use for almost three decades in different forms. However, in the past few years there have emerged considerable changes in the use of P2P networks as it is being used for sharing a wide variety of files such as movies, music and huge data files. Hence, the use of P2P file sharing for sharing such contents has brought serious challenges in the forms of ethical and legal issues. This paper has discussed some of the important legal and ethical issues associated with P2P networks. This paper has also discussed some laws that are applicable in such scenarios. This paper has also presented some suggestions that can be adopted by users in order to deal with or avoid such situations. Works Cited Boateng, Richard. “Management Information Systems.” 2010. Web. 22 September 2014 Feldman, Barbara J. Legal and Copyright Issues of P2P File Sharing. 02 June 2008. http://www.surfnetkids.com/tech/1388/legal-and-copyright-issues-of-p2p-file-sharing/. 28 September 2014. Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane P. Laudon. Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 9th edition. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005. Print. Lohmann, Fred von. "Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law: A Primer for Developers." Presented at IPTPS. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2003. Pp.1-7. Robinson, Edward. Social and Ethical Issues of Peer to Peer Netoworks. 20 April 2009. http://scgsassignment.blogspot.com/. 03 October 2014. University of Washington. Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing and Copyright Infringement: Are You Vulnerable? . 2010. http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/policy/p2pshare.html. 30 September 2014. Read More