This is what is happening today, and the case of Joel Tenenbaum, the 25-year-old American facing charges from Sony BMG and other, is a perfect example. Tenenbaum is being charged with illegal downloading due to his activities over p2p networks. The plaintiffs allege that Tenenbaum has been downloading music illegally.

Some bright minds have taken Tenenbaum’s side and have gone as far as to defend him. One of these is Charles Nesson, a professor at the esteemed Harvard University. According to Nesson, downloading falls under fair use. Out-law has the story:

“Fairness borders copyright infringement,” said Nesson in his submission. Proving that the defendant infringed entails proving that his copying was not fair … the issue of the fairness of the defendant’s use is integral to the decision the jury must make as to whether the defendant’s actions were infringements.”

He said that that 1976 law laid out four factors which will determine whether a fair use exemption applies. These are: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

He is making sense there, isn’t he? And I am sure many downloaders are loving it!

If you are new to downloading and are looking for a good place to download stuff, one of the best places to go is download.com. They are a safe and secure place to get freeware, shareware and adware. Not to mention that they are usually up to date on the latest software that computer users love.

They have almost everything! They have games of all sorts as well as music. They have software so that you can watch the latest videos in whatever format they came out (DVD,DIVX,MPEG4). Need business software? They have those too.

Why do people love download.com? This is the central depot for the latest downloadable items on the net. Download.com understands that you have a busy life and may not have the time to read the latest developments in technology. So they bring the news easily to you.

If you find something you like, you get a chance to download it. Some items are absolutely free and the creators thank you for choosing their product. Others are the trial versions. These are great because you get to decide if the software works for you without your having to pay for a piece of programming that does not suit your needs.

If you find that you do want to keep it beyond the trial period, you can easily acquire it. Download.com will bring you direct to the site where you can buy it. Everything is simple and easy. No rocket science involved.

So want to get started downloading? This is the start of the board.

Technorati Tags: downloading, legal downloads, cnet, freeware, shareware, adware, technology

Now, it seems that the pressure has gotten to the company. The pirates have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, and are going to be bought by Global Gaming Factory X, for a hefty sum of $7.7 million. The Swedish company has announced its intention to turn the iconic web site around and make it a legitimate business.

So what’s going to happen with the “new” Pirate Bay? Are people still going to be able to download content through it? The new owners say that they will still be delivering the same service. There will be one crucial difference, however: the owners of the copyrighted material will get paid.

We know what this means – downloading will NOT be free anymore. In other words, the pirates are going to be driven out of the picture. For sure, the 20 million or so users of the “old” Pirate Bay are not happy about the turn of events. However, I think that this is the harbinger of things to come. Perhaps in the near future, we might be more accepting towards legal (and maybe not always totally free) downloads.

How do you feel about the “new” Pirate Bay?

Thomas-Rasset holds the distinction of being the only person charged with file-sharing issues to go to court. There have been others who have been charged, of course, but most of them settled before the case could be heard. In Thomas-Rasset’s case, she was tried in 2007 and fined a lower amount. Following the result of that initial trial, the defendant wrote a brief that was able to persuade the judge to hold a re-trial. The point was something about the jury not being given the right instructions. Unfortunately for the defendant, the second trial ended worse than the first one; much worse; about a million times worse.

Obviously, there is something not quite right here. She may have been guilty of downloading songs illegally, but is (almost) $2m the right amount that she should pay? Heck, each of the songs she downloaded probably costs about a dollar on iTunes!

Perhaps the jury is trying to make a point here. After all, it was not the judge nor the music industry that requested for the amount. It was all in the jury’s hands. Maybe Thomas-Rasset pissed them off.

AFP has the story:

Deputies from the ruling UMP party voted to adopt the contested measure, overriding a challenge from the Socialist opposition which called it “an assault on public and individual liberties.”

Lawmakers earlier voted unanimously however to strike out a provision that would have forced banned users to keep paying their Internet subscription fees.

Once approved article by article, the entire bill will be submitted to the National Assembly for a vote.

On the one hand, there is some good news for those who download illegally. One, if someone gets caught, he will not have to continue paying for his Internet as it is already cut off. While that makes perfect sense, that is a much better alternative than having to continue paying for the service even when it has been cut, right? Two, the bill still has to be reviewed and voted on. Knowing how governments work, this could take months.

Well what can I say? They should have seen this coming. After all, illegal downloading is illegal, no ifs or buts about it. There are many other options out there which do not break the law anyway.

But what of this piece of news that has been making people go “really?” I heard from so many people from different places that YouTube is NOT going to be free anymore. YouTube is going to be a paid service. Oh no, it’s the end of the world!

Of course, the untrusting person in me just would not take these people’s words for the truth – I had to look it up myself and voila, I was right. They were all overreacting.

There is indeed truth to the news that YouTube will have a paid service but this is not the entirety. In fact, YouTube is currently only TESTING the paid service. The idea is for users to be able to download content in high resolution MP4 format for a fee. Part of this fee will go to the creator of the video. And since YouTube is part of Google now, you can pay for the downloads through Google Checkout.

Again, take note that this does NOT mean that you cannot watch videos for free anymore. It just means that if you want a copy for yourself, you have to pay for it. Fair enough, don’t you think?

As if there were not enough deterrents for many people to download legally over the Internet! Now I hear talk of actually taxing people over downloads! This is coming from the governor of New York, David Paterson. His spokesman has released statements to the effect that the governor’s proposal would entail applying four percent tax on any download. This means that if the proposal is approved, New Yorkers can expect to pay four percent tax on anything ranging from music, books, software, and video.

Obviously, I am not in agreement with this kind of proposal. We already know how a large number of people are avoiding having to pay for downloads by doing so through illegal means. Imposing a levy on legal downloads would only add to the financial burden of those who are already in a bad way.

So what is the rationale behind this proposal? New York is not the only state that is facing a deficit in budget. The governor’s office is looking to the four percent download tax as a possible means of lessening that deficit. While the tax may not totally get rid of the deficit, it just might close the gap.

However, the business sector is saying that this move might not work out as planned. Some people are saying that the hardest hit area would probably be pornographic downloads. This would in turn, result in businesses moving away from New York.

Business sense aside, all I am saying is that New Yorkers will not be very happy with having to pay four percent on anything they download.

Media as a whole loved the free spirited approach of YouTube without the hassles of multi-million dollar advertising deals and many other legal stuff that comes with it. Though many treat it as a place where they can say or show anything, well think again. YouTube follows the rulings and provisions of the United States Copyright law and do take out materials that are categorized to have broken these said laws. Nudity and vulgar content is also un-allowed and they are removed from the site accordingly.

The control and freedom have to be balanced and the site has to ensure that the rights of all are protected whatever side they may be on. They are always open to new stuff that can be shared to the worlds billions upon billions of users who visit and upload stuff they deem necessary. The legal side of YouTube is that many people who are directly affected by the said site, celebrities remain very much divided on the said site and how it works. Marketing people love the site for they use it in a form or another to promote stuff they normally spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars in ad fees and many other costs associated with it. The Legal advisors on the other hand hate it due to the proliferation of pirated stuff on the site which cannot be taken out of circulation on time. Recently, the company allowed Media companies to ban their stuff and pull them from the gallery without prior approval from the owners or the company.

So what do we expect for the future of YouTube, well like all things that start out to be free and un-regulated it will mature into a site that satisfies most of the parties involved. So future moves by the site might mean more strict controls and other measures to filter out stuff automatically but there will always be detractors as with any other issue.

Such has been the everyday issue that software manufacturers try to get around. No doubt that hackers and code breakers have made this as part of their daily living. Sharing is one thing but using them will evidently get people into trouble, especially people who search for these usual cracks and codes usually posted anywhere on the web today.

One thing that is certain, sites that house these serial codes and cracks are usually harmful sites to any computer. Trojans, spyware and malicious software that can contaminate computer browsers and workstations are a given. If it is any consolation, this is one thing that freeloaders have to deal with.

Technorati Tags: cracks, codes, serial, hackers