Use at Your Own Risk, P2P File–Sharing Networks

By Pamela S. Stevens

Yes, it is legal to share files. You can share your family videos with your friends or share pictures of your recent vacation with anyone, but sharing copyrighted material is a different matter. Additionally, opening up your files to anyone on the planet is an invitation to a hard drive disaster.

File sharing is big business. However, buyer beware, file sharing or P2P networks can offer you no protection. They cannot protect or hide you from criminal prosecution nor can they protect your hard drive from damaging viruses or spyware. File sharing websites make money by collecting a fee for giving members access to a file sharing, peer to peer network, they do not provide the content. Members provide the content and it is not regulated by the file sharing company, nor will they take responsibility for what is shared.

File sharing sites are tricky. When you visit a P2P site, they look legit and boast about how many movies they can offer—thousands of titles, for only a one–time fee of $24.99. If you see an offer that looks too good to be true, it is. If you look further into the site, you will see that they are a peer–to–peer file–sharing network and that they do not condone the sharing of copyrighted material, wink–wink–hint–hint and so on.

File sharing is risky business.

Yes, it is legal to share files. You can share your family videos with your friends or share pictures of your recent vacation with anyone, but sharing copyrighted material is a different matter. Additionally, opening up your files to anyone on the planet is an invitation to a hard drive disaster.

File sharing is big business. However, buyer beware, file sharing or P2P networks can offer you no protection. They cannot protect or hide you from criminal prosecution nor can they protect your hard drive from damaging viruses or spyware. File sharing websites make money by collecting a fee for giving members access to a file sharing, peer to peer network, they do not provide the content. Members provide the content and it is not regulated by the file sharing company, nor will they take responsibility for what is shared.

File sharing sites are tricky. When you visit a P2P site, they look legit and boast about how many movies they can offer—thousands of titles, for only a one-time fee of $24.99. If you see an offer that looks too good to be true, it is. If you look further into the site, you will see that they are a peer-to-peer file-sharing network and that they do not condone the sharing of copyrighted material, wink-wink-hint-hint and so on.

How do you know if a movie download site is legitimate?

Since there are so many professional looking sites out there, it can be difficult to know what services are legitimate. Studio backed movie download services have contracts with the movie providers that give them the rights to rent or sell videos. These are not peer–to–peer sites and they do not file share. They offer rentable downloads that usually have an expiration date based on their agreement with the studio. Some also can sell downloads, often called a digital sell through.

It is your responsibility to investigate a movie download service before you use it. File sharing companies will relate that they provide access to a P2P network and they post an extensive copyright warning. However, if you do not see these two things on the site contact them directly and ask them. If they do not offer a way for you to contact them directly, then do not use the service.

The future of movie download services is bright.

Increasingly, studios are collaborating with online download services to provide legitimate downloads of feature films. Media is also catching up with demand, computer companies are expanding the memory capacity in their hard drives and portables like the new iPod offer 60GB and the Windows Mobile–based Portable Media Centers have 40GB.

Save yourself from risking an expensive lawsuit, protect your hard drive and your kids from malicious downloads and give the artists and media developers the compensation they have earned by using a legal movie download service.

For a good family friendly service, see MovieLink or Vongo .

For a top quality all around site, see CinemaNow .

For access to an extensive collection of classics and B titles, see MovieFlix .

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