Company PCs hijacked by music downloaders, potential for law

[Jo]

according to a new survey, more than three-quarters of corporations have file-sharing programs installed on company computers. None of the mid-sized and larger companies with 500 PCs or more were free of file-sharing software such as KaZaA or Morpheus, thus offering a big potential for legal problems:

The survey found that file-swapping software was installed at least once at about 77% of all the 560 corporations surveyed worldwide. Some had peer-to-peer programs installed on as many as 58% of their PCs. The study included more than 175,000 PCs and companies varied in size from 100 to 40,000 employees.

The results reinforce "the concerns that the recording industry worldwide has had about the amount of illegal file sharing that's being transacted on corporations' computer networks," said Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association. "I didn't anticipate it was this extensive," he added.

CRIA's U.S. counterpart, the Recording Industry Association of America, last month said it is prepared to take legal action against systemic users of music-sharing software who illegally distribute copyrighted songs over the Web.

Mr. Robertson said CRIA is not yet "in litigation mode." It plans to undertake a letter campaign aimed at 500 Canadian companies which the association believes could have peer-to-peer software on their systems.


Several companies have already introduced software to hunt down and delete unauthorised software on their networks such as KaZaA and other file-sharing tools.

[The village idiot]

That would mean that at least one machine exists on the ClearChannels WAN that has been stealing music. Now that's funny! It would also mean that there is likely at least one machine on the Timewarner cable systems network. And on Sony's network. And probably on the Disney/ABC/ESPN network.

[dcsos]

AND VERIZON, which has gone on record saying they will aid in BLOCKING or BUSTING downloaders,
IS PROVIDING SERVICE TO THIS MERRY BAND OF COPORATE THEIVES

[The village idiot]

The RoadRunner employees raiding the coffers of the parent Warner Bros.

[dcsos]

SONY and PHILLIPS are the big winners though

think about it
Whether you buy a DVD from
SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

or you're
purchasing a blank

SONY's GOT YOUR $$$CASH
(SONY and PHILLIPS share about 8 cents on each blank sold as the inventors)

[mysticgohan17]

...THIS MERRY BAND OF COPORATE THEIVES

argghhh matey's.