“WHETHER THE ACT OF DOWNLOADING COPYRIGHTED WORKS, SHARED BY OTHERS WHO ARE NOT COPYRIGHT OWNERS OF SUCH WORKS, IS AN ACT OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT ON THE PART OF THE DOWNLOADER”

“WHETHER THE ACT OF DOWNLOADING COPYRIGHTED WORKS, SHARED BY OTHERS WHO ARE NOT COPYRIGHT OWNERS OF SUCH WORKS, IS AN ACT OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT ON THE PART OF THE DOWNLOADER”

The purpose of Copyright Law is to create software, music, literature and other works, using digital technologies, by ensuring that the creator will be able to reap the financial benefits of the work. The Law on Copyright gives the owner or author exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, publicly distribute, perform and display their works. However, an exception under the law would arise if such copyrighted materials were acquired through the concept of “fair use”. Fair use, in some instances, permits the use or copying of all or a portion of a copyrighted work without the permission of the owner. Nowadays, the use of digital technologies by some persons, intentionally or fair use, whether for profit or not, to perfectly copy the works of others and made available to others for distribution and consumption are presumed to be in violation of copyright infringement unless otherwise substantiated by reasonable and conclusive evidences. This makes it easier for people to create and get copies of songs or videogames, and more difficult for copyright holders, like record companies, to control the works once they are released to the public. This new technologies has changed the way content distributors relate with their customers and law and business models are just trying to catch up.

A person who is a downloader, generally, is infringing copyright if he or she downloaded or stored copyrighted materials on his or her computer shared by others who are not copyright owners of such work if such is without the permission of the copyright owner, unless fair use or other exemption under copyright law applies. In other words, the intent of the user or downloader is necessary to constitute copyright infringement. A person who downloads files for personal use is not in violation of the law. Most of the downloading over the Internet that are commercially available copyrighted works, like music or movies, through file sharing systems is illegal. An example would be the case of Napster where its users were adjudged to be infringing copyright when they shared MP3 files of copyrighted music. Even if you don’t illegally offer recordings to others, you join a file-sharing network and download unauthorized copies of all the copyrighted music you want for free from the computers of other network members would also result to copyright infringement. Also, in order to gain access to copyrighted music on the computers of other network members, you pay a fee to join a file-sharing network that isn’t authorized to distribute or make copies of copyrighted music. Then you download unauthorized copies of all the music you want. The law on copyright gives the holder a limited right on reproduction, distribution, and display of such work. Such copyright infringement would not set in if such is only for personal use. If a person bought a fake dvd copy for the purpose of watching a movie or for personal use, he may not be liable for copyright infringement. However, if such person reproduced the copy of the movie for profit or gain, then he becomes liable for copyright infringement.  

In contrast, if a person has purchased licensed software, like Microsoft Office, it is legal to keep a copy on his or her computer. Also, if a person downloads music or other copyrighted material in accordance with the terms of a license, or if the copyright owner grants him or her permission to download or keep a copy of the owner's work, such persons are free to do so. According to some articles, it is okay to download music from sites authorized by the owners of the copyrighted music, whether or not such sites charge a fee. There are sites where permission is granted and content is available for downloading legally. It is never okay to download unauthorized music from pirate sites (web or FTP) or peer-to-peer systems. An examples of peer-to-peer systems making unauthorized music available for download would be Ares, BitTorrent, Gnutella, Limewire, and Morpheus. It is worth knowing that it is never okay to make unauthorized copies of music available to others via uploading music on peer-to-peer systems.