can someone explain to me why peer to peer sites are still open

jetsfanmack · 04-16-2005, 05:21 PM

doing a paper for school about copyright law. Was just wondering why Napster was shut down, yet sites like Ares and Soulseek and what not are still up and running, thanks?

jesper stromblad rules · 04-16-2005, 05:44 PM

Possibly because the RIAA figure it's easy money to keep them running, and simply sue the users?

oktaren · 04-17-2005, 10:35 AM

alot of the new ones have no real owners. unlike napster who stored hardware and software on their actual network and had the data(music in most cases) go over their networks. the new networks don't have servers set up for that. instead you download the software and the files are transfered directly. giving out the software isn't illegal at all. its how people use the software on these new networks that is illegal. you can't punish software developers because the software they are using is illegal. but you can punish networks such as napster that did all the work for them through their servers. i hope that is clear. if you really want to know about it more in depth there is a ton of info about it on the net.

bitonti · 04-17-2005, 11:11 AM

also keep in mind that alot of these programs originate from far outside the reach of US copyright law. Kazaa for example is a swedish program.

04-16-2005, 05:21 PM	#1
jetsfanmack All League Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 978	can someone explain to me why peer to peer sites are still open doing a paper for school about copyright law. Was just wondering why Napster was shut down, yet sites like Ares and Soulseek and what not are still up and running, thanks?

04-16-2005, 05:44 PM	#2
jesper stromblad rules Hall Of Fame Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Ireland Posts: 2,892	Possibly because the RIAA figure it's easy money to keep them running, and simply sue the users?

04-17-2005, 10:35 AM	#3
oktaren Banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1,534	alot of the new ones have no real owners. unlike napster who stored hardware and software on their actual network and had the data(music in most cases) go over their networks. the new networks don't have servers set up for that. instead you download the software and the files are transfered directly. giving out the software isn't illegal at all. its how people use the software on these new networks that is illegal. you can't punish software developers because the software they are using is illegal. but you can punish networks such as napster that did all the work for them through their servers. i hope that is clear. if you really want to know about it more in depth there is a ton of info about it on the net.

04-17-2005, 11:11 AM	#4
bitonti searching Hall Of Fame Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philly Posts: 38,786	also keep in mind that alot of these programs originate from far outside the reach of US copyright law. Kazaa for example is a swedish program.