About Illegal File Sharing and Downloading on the Internet

Article: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,137645,00.html

As some may remember from last year, a company called Odex started mailing letters to numerous anime downloaders in Singapore threatening legal action. Many of those who received letters chose to settle out of court for a few thousand dollars each. While this incident may not be that recent, illegal file sharing is an issue that is still undergoing debate today, as a fair proportion of Internet users are engaged in the activity.

Illegal file sharing on the Internet has many arguments on both sides. Many of us are aware that sharing of copyrighted material is piracy, and piracy is supposedly no better than stealing. However, hardly any punishment is meted out to those who share copyrighted material illegally. Also, it is difficult to measure what is lost by the copyright owners when a file is shared over the Internet. For example, many reason that they would not have bought the object even if they did not download it illegally. Also, the actions carried out by the companies who have attempted to prosecute illegal file sharers have drawn much criticism.

Taking the Odex case as an example, one can find much information from Singaporean forums criticising Odex for its actions. Many likened the “fine” to blackmail, since a fair number of those involved were children and teenagers without the ability to defend themselves in court, thus only able to pay a settlement out of court. Also, questions about how much an ISP should protect the privacy of its customers were raised, as Odex had obtained the list of names from the ISPs. Perhaps what led to the most uproar was a few posts made by one of the directors of Odex on a forum, boasting about his actions against the anime downloaders, suggesting that what they did was just for their own profit and not for helping the anime industry. Also, it was alleged that the anime that Odex itself sold used subtitles from the illegally downloaded anime itself.

Personally I feel that a simple warning letter asking the offender to stop may be more effective than some realize. For those teenagers who are torrenting because they have no money to buy the goods legally, a letter to their parents will usually put a stop to any activity. In addition, perhaps demonstrating to illegal file sharers that it is not so difficult to get caught after all may cause many to think twice about performing such an act. In fact, a survey conducted in UK suggests that up to 70% of those who share files illegally would stop if mailed a warning letter by their ISP (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/03/2036254&from=rss). Thus, perhaps the companies involved in such matters should be more understanding of what the Internet population who shares files reacts to and act accordingly. Perhaps if less harsh methods do not work, then full legal penalties should be applied.

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