Tech News on G4Illegal downloading killed my puppyOctober 10, 2007By Adam Swimmer - G4 Canada |
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“You don't wanna mess with the R-I-double A. In light of the recent decision by the U.S. Courts to order a young mother to pay $222,000 to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for downloading 24 crappy songs (I've seen the list, Janet Jackson and Richard Marx are on it), I thought it was prudent to share with you the various ways you can download, listen to and view all the “illegal” content you want. To most of you, this will be nothing new, but for the few who haven't delved into this online area, here's your chance to jump into the foray and send a virtual f-you to the recording and movie industries, while remaining safe in the knowledge, you are slightly better protected by Canadian law.
In Canada, a 2003 court case decision essentially made downloading files legal regardless of the source. Though, uploading is still regarded as illegal. Part of this ruling reflects the fact that blank media carries a tax which is redistributed to artists through a non-profit agency. This is to allow making copies for your personal use, but it implicitly legalizes the copying of music. Jammie Thomas vs. The RIAA (photo credit: © AP Photo/Duluth News Tribune, Bob King)
Thomas claimed someone hacked into her computer and downloaded the content without her knowledge, which if true makes the outcome even more reprehensible. But what's worrisome is the precedent this verdict sets, as this is the first of the suits that actually made it to court. So there may be more to come by both the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America. Sure $222,000 is not as much as the $3.6 million the RIAA was seeking, and even this value will most likely come down in appeal. I mean, seriously. It has to. That's $9,250 a song. I doubt even Def Leppard would argue “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is worth that much.
The songs were downloaded through the file-sharing service Kazaa, which is a little out-of-date. Although sites for some of these services still exist, such as Limewire and Morpheus, most people don't use them anymore for large files. Essentially, you just install the program and you use it to search other users shared folders for content to download. And if you act like a jerk and turn off your own shared folders so other users can't download files from your computer, you aren't breaking Canadian copyright law. Of course, if everyone did that, then there would be nothing to download, which is kind of why people stopped using it in the first place. Not so much for legal reasons, but people downloading your stuff slowed down your own downloads so everybody seemed to stop allowing access to their own stash and the sites crawled to a standstill. They're still okay to download the odd song here and there, but at times it seems almost easier to shell out the 99 cents to iTunes. Almost. BitTorrent clients
The more users downloading a particular file, the faster the download as you upload it at the same time. So transferring a file you don't have a license for falls into a grey area, legally speaking. But the client itself is completely legal as you can theoretically use it for downloading legitimate content, such as distributions of Fedora Linux or public domain films from a site like Legit Torrents. If you're looking for something else, a simple Google search of “torrents” will bring up plenty of choices.
One of the more popular torrent sites Demonoid recently blocked access to Canadian users over coercion from the Canadian Recording Industry Association. One way to get around this is to use a proxy server. Essentially, you jump onto an IP address in another part of the world and use it to access the site. One of the easiest is an add-on for Firefox, the SwitchProxy Tool. You install it as you would any extension, then surf to a site that list proxy servers, such as Public Proxy Servers. Look for a U.S. proxy server that's listed as transparent and then then add that IP address and port number as a standard proxy to the add-on's preferences. Some proxy servers are rather slow, though, so you might have to try a few before you settle on one. Changing to a proxy server can also help accessing other sites as well, such as Pandora Internet Radio, which blocked Canadians a few months back or to watch TV shows on ABC's or NBC's which are only accessible when you view the site from the States. Of course, if you're willing to watch streaming content, you can always go on a site like, TV links, which provides various links to television, movies, music videos on sites, such as YouTube, Daily Motion and Veoh. And remember kids... Internet piracy is not taking money out of the mouths of starving artists. Most musicians make only a small amount of money off of CD sales. They make most of their money of concerts, which even if bootlegged, are still sellouts for the major musicians. (And with movies and television, the talent has already been paid.) What we're talking about is big business. The music labels and film studios are complaining they aren't raking in as much profit as they once did, which is as much do to with what they produce as anything else. Metallica's album sales dropped in the mid-'90s because they got old and no one cared anymore, not because of Napster. I mean, they toured with a therapist. That's not rock n' roll! And just because someone downloads a song or movie doesn't mean they would have paid money for the CD or went to the theatre if they couldn't. In the past they might have just taped the song off the radio or waited for the movie to play on late-night cable. But, of course, I'm not suggesting you actually do this, because it's morally and ethically wrong and you should be ashamed of yourselves for even contemplating it. You should engage in the more wholesome online experience of submitting false facts to Wikipedia and surfing for porn. |
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Jammie Thomas, 30, was sued under the 
Peer to Peer File Sharing
Far more common nowadays is file-sharing through 
First you have to install a BitTorrent client. There's one on the official site, but there are countless others to choose from. (I personally like 
Accessing HTTP Proxy servers
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