ONLINE FILE SWAPPING

I Share the Songs That Make the Whole World Sing...

The Annoyance:

I just downloaded the entire Barry Manilow MP3 Collection using my favorite file-sharing network. These networks are anonymous, right? The record companies can't possibly find out who I am, right?

The Fix:

Wrong and wrong. Some of your fellow file swappers aren't really file swappers they're firms like Ranger Online that are employed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to catch file-sharing scofflaws. Exactly how these companies operate is a trade secret, but essentially they log onto peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa or Gnutella, initiate downloads, and record the IP addresses of computers containing large numbers of illegally copied songs. The RIAA's crack legal team then sends a letter to the Internet Service Providers who control these IP addresses, demanding the ISPs identify the swappers using them. Under the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), ISPs that cooperate with this request can't be prosecuted for violating copyright laws. Among the recipients of an RIAA subpoena were a 12-year-old honors student in New York City and an 83-year-old grandmother in West Virginia who'd been dead for a month.

Privacy in Peril: Aloha, Kazaa

According to a report in the Honolulu Advertiser, agents with the FBI's Cybercrime unit asked computer repair shops on the island of Oahu to report on any machines containing child porn, threats to national security, or file-swapping software. Next time you vacation in the islands, you may want to leave your laptop at home.

Still, some large ISPs like SBC and Verizon refused to comply with the RIAA's demands. In December 2003, a DC district court ruled the RIAA didn't have the authority to force ISPs to identify their customers under the DMCA. So the RIAA's legal eagles changed tactics and began filing "John Doe" suits under other provisions of Federal evidentiary law, making it harder for ISPs to avoid cooperating. (For a good summary of the legal issues, see the Privacy Resolutions PC page at http://www.privacyresolutions.com/laws/RIAA/RIAA.htm.) Bottom line? Don't expect your ISP to protect you.

Once the RIAA has your name and number, you're grist for their legal mill. For an overview of the issues sympathetic to file sharers, check out the Tech Law Advisor blog at http://techlawadvisor.com/riaa/. For the record industry's point of view, see http://www.riaa.com/issues/piracy.

PRIVACY IN PERIL: MAKING A FEDERAL CASE OUT OF FILE SHARING

Fans of file swapping may soon have bigger things to worry about than being sued by the RIAA. At press time, Congress was considering a bill that would make it a Federal offense to share copyrighted files.

The Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation (PIRATE) Act of 2004 (S.2237) would allow Federal prosecutors to sue individual file swappers for civil and statutory damages. The bill was passed by the Senate, and referred to a House committee, where it sits to this day. (A 1997 law, the No Electronic Theft Act, made it a crime to engage in file swapping, but no one's ever been prosecuted under it because the burden of proof has been considered too high not to mention the bad press a prosecutor would get for hunting down file-swapping teenagers). The PIRATE Act could lower the burden of proof and jump-start prosecutions. It may also allow Federal wiretaps to be used to obtain evidence of infringement.

The Sue Me, Sue You Blues

The Annoyance:

I don't want to get sued, but I'm also tired of paying $17.99 for crappy CDs with only one decent song on them. How do I keep the RIAA off my back?

The Fix:

Well, there are an estimated 40 to 60 million people swapping files online, and the RIAA had sued around 11,500 of them at press time, so the odds are definitely in your favor. Just the same, you can reduce your risk even further by following a few simple precautions.

First, check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation's page on how to avoid being sued by the RIAA (http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php). The tips include such things as not sharing copyrighted files (duh), turning off file sharing entirely, and not allowing your computer to serve up massive numbers of files. You could also change the names of your files so they're harder to identify (though that also makes them harder for your online buddies to find), or swap only independent music published by companies that aren't members of the RIAA (to find such songs, check out the RIAA Radar site at http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/search.asp). Or you could simply sign up for one of the legal sites (e.g., Apple iTunes, Napster, Sony Connect, etc.) and fork over 75 to 99 cents a pop for your Pop.

Are you willing to pay to thumb your nose at the RIAA? For $10 a month ($100 a year) you can sign up for AnonX (http://www.anonx.com), a service that provides anonymous access to popular file-sharing networks like Kazaa and Gnutella. AnonX manages this feat by employing an encrypted, virtual private network operating from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. At press time, the island had not yet been invaded by an armada of record company attorneys possibly because they've been unable to locate Vanuatu on a map.

Want to find out if there's a record industry subpeona out there with your name on it? Dial up the EFF's subpeona search page http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/riaasubpoenas/ and run a search by your name or IP address. If you are unlucky enough to be sued, be sure to check out Subpoena Defense (http://www.subpoenadefense.org/) for help with legal issues. And look on the bright side you might end up in an Apple iPod commercial.

Avoid P2P Vermin

The Annoyance:

I like to swap audio and video files on the Net (so sue me). But sometimes these files aren't what they seem. Am I getting viruses or other electronic vermin when I download media files?

The Fix:

You could be. Last year British technology site The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk) reported a P2P virus on the Kazaa network masquerading as nude photos of actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (at least they've got good taste). When opened, the file installed a Trojan Horse on the user's system that allowed hackers to gain access to the machine and steal or destroy its data. The Virus Information Library (http://www.viruslibrary.com) lists 15 different virus strains that spread via P2P networks.

And even if you don't get a virus, you may download a file that's simply not what it appears to be. Among various other nasty tricks, record companies have been known to seed P2P networks with decoy files featuring 20 seconds of music followed by loud screeching. So, naturally, a pair of enterprising file swappers compiled these songs and put them on an RIAA Remix CD ($7.99, http://riaamix.com/).

The moral? If you do download files, be sure to scan them first with your antivirus utility before trying to open them. Think about turning your speakers down, too, the first time you try to play one.