File sharing occurs when folks who are hooked up to the Net use file-sharing programs to copy files between each other. The moral issues come often from the concern that practitioners of file sharing may infringe copyright laws. This can happen if the content of a file being shared is covered by such laws.
File sharing isn't always illegal, even if the works being shared are covered by copyright. For example, some artists may choose to support freeware, shareware, opensource, or anti-copyright, and advocate the use of file sharing as a free promotional tool. Almost all shareware, freeware, and open source software might be shared as much as the end user wishes, depending on the End User Disclaimer for that explicit bit of software. Other non-software related intellectual property might be shared legally in any way the end user wishes. Content in the public domain can also openly be shared.
The entire thing has been a sideshow to a sideshow to a main event that long ago turned into a circus, but the participation of groups like the FSF shows how much attention the case is getting. With Professor Nesson set to debate in court that file-sharing is only fair use, the case has believed a significance far beyond that of most such legal actions, and everybody wants a chance to be heard.
Nesson is knocking up a really fascinating defense in a peer-to-peer piracy case. Rather than arguing that charged file-swapper Joel Tenenbaum didn't do it, Nesson is saying that Nesson did not do anything inaccurate because sharing files with your "friends" over the internet isn't essentially a crime, and is covered under well-established Fair Use laws. Similarly , according to Nesson, the aggrieved party in a file-copying case isn't entitled to any damages anyway.
Nesson's plan is incredibly bold -- should he succeed in this novel defense, it will essentially, de-criminalize p-2-p file-sharing forever.
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