MUS 104 (Hanus)

What is a pirate? Are there any pirates today? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

Each year, hundreds of pirate attacks are committed. Most of the piracy undertaken today is the stealing of intellectual property (IP) of the stealing of ideas. You may be considered a pirate or have at least helped pirates by downloading music without paying

Intellectual property refers to ideas. Our economy is dependent upon the creation and distribution of intellectual property (IP) for growth. However, the economy is plagued by IP theft - often referred to as piracy. Piracy is illegal downloading and file sharing. Most people would never even consider stealing something from a store, when it comes to stealing digital recordings of copyrighted music, they seem to think the same rules don’t apply—even though criminal penalties can be as high as five years in prison or $250,000 in fines.

What is music copyright law?

Musicians make money and copyright plays a large part in their earnings. Copyright is a legal protection that protects the rights of authors of creative works, and includes the rights of composers. Did you know that as soon as you write a composition, and have it notated in any format, that your work is automatically under copyright?  Read this library article for more details

What is the difference between music piracy and Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing?

Piracy of intellectual property refers to the unauthorized use, reproduction, and/or distribution of protected material such as computer software, video games, music, movies, and peer-to-peer filesharing.  Peer-to-peer filesharing (P2P) is a type of Internet network that allows a group of computer users with the same software program to connect with each other and share files directly from one another's hard drives.

Which peer-to-peer applications are illegal?

Studies have shown that most peer-to-peer filesharing is unauthorized and often infringes copyright, which is illegal. One of the primary uses of P2P technology has been copying of commercial music, games and videos, without the copyright holder's permission, for personal use and entertainment. These kinds of activities almost certainly violate copyright law. Popular programs and software for these activities have included Napster, Kazaa, Gnutella, LimeWire, Grokster, Morpheus, FastTrack, eDonkey, mIRC, and BitTorrent.

What happens if you break music copyright law?

The RIAA (Recording Industry Artists of America) is a large music organization. Their website provides information about their organization, as well as their stance on illegal downloading.

• What is Online Piracy?

  Section of the RIAA's website that deals exclusively with online piracy.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, distribution of copyright materials is punishable by law. Those found guilty of copyright infringement may face the following penalties:

• Up to five years in jail
• Fines and charges of up to $150,000 per file
• In addition to any other charges that might be brought against you, the copyright holder can file suit, which can result in legal fees and damages that must be paid.

The Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA) actively monitors many popular file downloading services. 

The RIAA frequently takes legal action against individuals suspected of illegal downloading, and this includes college students. This can lead to serious financial consequences, including both civil and criminal penalties:

1. In a civil suit, copyright law sets a damage range of $750 to $30,000 per infringement, or up to $150,000 if the violation was "willful." The actual amount will be based upon what the court in its discretion considers just. See 17 U. S. C. §504.
2. Penalties to be applied in cases of criminal copyright infringement are set forth at 18 U. S. C. §2319. Congress has increased these penalties substantially in recent years, and has broadened the scope of behaviors to which they can apply. A defendant, convicted for the first time of violating 17 U. S. C. §506(a) by the unauthorized reproduction or distribution, during any 180-day period, of at least 10 copies or phonorecords, or 1 or more copyrighted works, with a retail value of more than $2,500 can be imprisoned for up to 5 years and fined up to $250,000, or both.