What is digital citizenship?
Have you ever downloaded a song (mp3 file) from the internet? Think about your experience.
If you aren't paying for your downloads though, you might have a bit of explaining to do. Have you ever thought about whether or not it is legal to do this? It's so quick and easy to do, and of course everyone else is doing it, right?
But did you ever stop to think about the fact that someone else has legal ownership over the work you are stealing? Did you ever even think about it as stealing? Well, you're about to find out that is exactly what most file sharing services are, forms of illegal pirating or stealing of copyrighted material.
Today, we are going to begin learning about the topic of digital citizenship so you can understand the rules and regulations surrounding the legal use of copyrighted material available on the internet.
- Was it hard to find the file you were looking for?
- Did it take a long time to download the file?
- How much did it cost you?
If you aren't paying for your downloads though, you might have a bit of explaining to do. Have you ever thought about whether or not it is legal to do this? It's so quick and easy to do, and of course everyone else is doing it, right?
But did you ever stop to think about the fact that someone else has legal ownership over the work you are stealing? Did you ever even think about it as stealing? Well, you're about to find out that is exactly what most file sharing services are, forms of illegal pirating or stealing of copyrighted material.
Today, we are going to begin learning about the topic of digital citizenship so you can understand the rules and regulations surrounding the legal use of copyrighted material available on the internet.
Why is digital citizenship important?
So, what does it mean if something is copyrighted? Copyrighted material refers to any song, document, video, etc. that legally belongs to someone else and cannot be reproduced, used, or downloaded without that person's permission.
How often does copyrighted material get shared illegally on the internet? ALL THE TIME! Read the following article excerpts and watch the video below to learn more.
"File sharing has become one of the most common on-line activities. File sharing occurs in networks which allow individuals to share, search for, and download files from one another.
While few participated in file sharing prior to 1999 (the founding year of the now defunct Napster), there were more than three million simultaneous users sharing over a half a billion files on the most popular network (KaZaA) in 2003. Each week there are more than one billion downloads of music files alone. Participation in file sharing has also grown. Over 60 million Americans above the age of twelve have downloaded music (Ipsos-Reid, 2002b)."
Oberholzer, Felix and Koleman Strumpf. "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales." Journal of Political Economy, Volume 115, pgs 1-42. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
"Peer to peer file sharing came of age during the dot.com boom and the rise of Napster. Between its debut in 1999 and its eventual failure in 2001, Napster enabled tens of millions of users to easily share MP3-formatted song files with each other. After being shut down by court order, Napster reemerged as a small shadow of itself, legally selling songs. Its success and failure paved the way for many new P2P file-sharing networks."
M. Eric Johnson, Dan McGuire, Nicholas D. Willey, "The Evolution of the Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Industry and the Security Risks for Users," hicss, pp. 383, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008), 2008.
How often does copyrighted material get shared illegally on the internet? ALL THE TIME! Read the following article excerpts and watch the video below to learn more.
"File sharing has become one of the most common on-line activities. File sharing occurs in networks which allow individuals to share, search for, and download files from one another.
While few participated in file sharing prior to 1999 (the founding year of the now defunct Napster), there were more than three million simultaneous users sharing over a half a billion files on the most popular network (KaZaA) in 2003. Each week there are more than one billion downloads of music files alone. Participation in file sharing has also grown. Over 60 million Americans above the age of twelve have downloaded music (Ipsos-Reid, 2002b)."
Oberholzer, Felix and Koleman Strumpf. "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales." Journal of Political Economy, Volume 115, pgs 1-42. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
"Peer to peer file sharing came of age during the dot.com boom and the rise of Napster. Between its debut in 1999 and its eventual failure in 2001, Napster enabled tens of millions of users to easily share MP3-formatted song files with each other. After being shut down by court order, Napster reemerged as a small shadow of itself, legally selling songs. Its success and failure paved the way for many new P2P file-sharing networks."
M. Eric Johnson, Dan McGuire, Nicholas D. Willey, "The Evolution of the Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Industry and the Security Risks for Users," hicss, pp. 383, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008), 2008.
