Piracy is a silent crime that goes unnoticed. Even a lot of the youth today are the prime movers in this illegal action. Though piracy cannot be totally eradicated, there are still ways to somehow reduce the incidence of this petty theft. Since the likelihood of being caught is very minimal, piracy is very widespread and even comes to a point that it becomes uncontrollable.

Increasing Awareness

Anti-piracy educational campaigns should be taken a notch higher. Though piracy awareness has been taking place, it needs to evolve into something that would demand more attention. Since the youth spends most of their time in front of the screen and are most likely susceptible to the temptations of downloading applications without obtaining the permission of the owner, it is then a crucial step to incorporate piracy details in the school curriculum. Parents should also educate their children on the dangers of indulging in piracy and inculcate in them the moral responsibility that comes along with their computer usage.

Fair Prices and Quality Content

Why do people find piracy very tempting? It is because they can get an almost good a deal at a very low price. That said, the key to stopping piracy is to sell quality content at fair prices. Apple is actually taking the first step in this not so popular method. Apple has been doing it with the I-Tunes Music sore. With several digital restrictions on copying, better quality at fair prices, piracy could really be diminished. Though this effort would not completely stop piracy, and some people will and still pirate, making an affordable alternative could very well cut the piracy population in half.

Policy Amendments

With stronger copyright laws, it might be more difficult to download items without going through the hassle of acquiring legal license. Not all “pirates” are willing to go through the hole. Enforcement techniques should be delivered sternly. In September 2003, several lawsuits were filed against individuals who illegally downloaded copyrighted content via file sharing networks. This is the first progress to discourage Internet users from even committing this petty crime.

Facebook For Smartphones

With the recent upgrade to its inbox, Facebook users can now navigate Facebook in almost real time. The upgraded Facebook application is now fast and stable.

Winamp

Winamp is an application that has been around for over a decade already. With recent upgrades such as Mac syncing, support for iTunes and a variety of music streaming options, you can continue to enjoy your rock and roll on your own mobile phone.

Flickr

You can now have your pictures uploaded directly to social networking sites. Flickr allows its users to capture photos within the application. It is also equipped with a set of filters to enable photo uploading with ease.

BBC News

Catch the latest new with the BBC news application. It features a stylish grid front page with easy to navigate pages. Users can even submit their own news tip with the recent upgrade.

Google Sky Map

Get a closer look at the constellations with the google sky map application. Use your phone’s orientation tools to know more about constellations. All you need top do is point your phone at the sky and it will tell you what constellations are visible.

If you haven’t purchased a smartphone yet, you can check out mobile phones nz and other online shopping sites to get your hands on a good one. After purchasing one, you can now start downloading free apps on your phone.

Anybody who likes to watch movies, listen to music or read books usually encounters copyright issues. Copyright is not just confined to books—it can be applied to just about everything from tires to music to soles of the shoes. It is defined as a legal right of a publisher or creative individual to control the reproduction and use of their masterpieces of original works. Asking permission to use other people’s original work may or may not come with a cost. But sometimes, the owner grants one person the permission with some terms that must be adhered.

You are most likely breaking the copyright laws when you distribute, download or get music, movie or other files from musicians, authors and artists without their permission. Aside from this problem, P2P file sharing can also become a means to gather and distribute people’s information of other people and use it for pornography or as a form of other illegal files not suited for the public. Identity theft is also highly possible with file sharing because other people can have access to your personal information and use this to set-up a fake account using your name and all the other data about you.

When a person downloads an illegal file, he may not know that he have also downloaded illegal pornographic materials along with the other files. The person (who have downloaded the file) will just realize this when it shows up on the computer. This will become a legal issue when someone accuses you of something you did unintentionally. Of course, the downloaded material can be used as evidence against you.

To keep yourself safe from any legal and copyright issues surrounding P2P file sharing, always remember to be careful. Pay attention to the details of the copyrights of your files. You might want to gain copyright from the rightful owner or opt not to share the files to other people. Firewalls and other safety measures can also be applied in most P2P file sharing sites, so make sure to use these for your own sake.

• Acquire a domain and register it.
• Look for a reliable provider that will be able to effectively host your website. Settle for a webhost provider that can promise you 99.9% uptime.
• Decide whether you want to design your web-site from scratch or you prefer to use pre-made web templates. Web templates are now widely available online; some are offered for free, while others may need to be purchased for a reasonable price.
• Consider using WordPress – a popular CMS tool – that will help you manage and maintain your site with ease.
• Refrain from putting too much graphics or using flash intro on your site. It is important that your website loads in an instant so as not to turn off your visitors because of a slow-loading page.
• When everything has been setup, all that is left to do is to fill your website with relevant contents. Be sure to post new contents regularly to boost traffic in your site.

Over the past years, the music industry has been fighting against piracy but although copyright laws are made to protect the rightful owners, it turns out that this has not stopped pirates from copying music and even entire albums only to be distributed for free online. But since people like easily downloadable media, rather than wasting their energy in stopping piracy why not just simply copy them. This may sound like a ridiculous plan but this is actually something that might work.

It is expected that sites offering unlimited access to mp3 downloads will start to proliferate the internet in the years to come. Record companies will sell copyrights of their songs to these sites in return they will have to share a percentage of their profits to them. Sounds like a good plan right? Doing so will also help ease the problem on illegal music download.

Truth of the matter is, this is not a new plan. In fact, iTunes successfully introduced legal music downloads a long time ago. Though there are still record labels and music companies that are not ecstatic about the idea, they are not completely shunning it either. Besides, as mentioned earlier, we are now in the digital age. Everything we use today, from tv, computers even airconditioners are now digitalized. So why not do the same when releasing music albums. In fact, record companies will save a lot when they opt for a digital release. They won’t have to shell out money for the cds or dvds where the music will be recorded. Instead, they can use that money to advertise their digital music releases which is now very convenient thanks to the emergence of social media. In addition to that, they can even put up legal mp3 streaming sites where users can listen to their favorite music without having to download them. With this said, it is very likely that huge music companies will eventually embrace digital distribution completely. After all, it is better to offer their music at a lowered price than not earning profit at all.

The best thing that huge record labels and music production companies can do is to adapt with the changing trends in the industry, and use the advancing technology to its fullest advantage. However, I strongly believe that copyright laws should be revised to ensure that no one will take advantage of the ease of distributing digital music online. By doing so, the law can protect the rights of not only the record companies but also the music artists as well.

For one, the law governing copyright issues is very complicated and too broad to say the least. In the US, copyright infringement occurs when someone illegally reproduce or make profit from distributing any copyrighted media, be it movies, books or music. If this is the case, then it is safe to assume that movie streaming online are illegal since they are being viewed by thousands of users worldwide, with no clear idea indicating whether the copyright of the movie has been bought legally or not. But if it is illegal, why are these sites still in full operation and with the looks of it, more online movie streaming sites-paid and free- continue to emerge on the internet.

While piracy has been an on-going problem even before the conception of the internet, the advancing technology has provided an even better platform for illegal copies of movies and music to be easily distributed to the public. Try browsing the internet, and you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of free movie streaming sites offering the latest movie releases. Although not all of them offer the best copy of the movie, still the movie industry is losing millions or even billions of dollars because of the unauthorized and illegal internet streaming of movies. Since the internet has a worldwide reach, anyone can gain access to the media being streamed online.

What I don’t understand is that, if law makers are not yet ready to get to terms with the legality of internet movie streaming, then how is it possible that Netflix is able to stream and share movies legally for a fee? Knowing this, the copyright law in terms of streaming movies online has just got murkier, at best. Truth of the matter is, there are still a lot of loopholes in the copyright laws. A good example is a copyright lawsuit filed against Zediva, an online movie service that has just been recently launched.

Upon the site’s launch early last year, it became an instant hit. What Zediva does is it that it buys the copyright of recently released movies and then plays the movie on DVD players on their servers and then rent the player for 2 dollars, with the user’s computer acting like the remote. The movies are played on the company’s players one at a time, which Zediva claims give them legal coverage. However, it looks like the law and movie studios are not agreeing with them, since they have been shut down by the US District Court due to an impending case of copyright infringement filed against them.

While the future of Zediva is a bit bleak, at the moment, the company is still positive that they will win the case. The company has come up with two compelling defenses – one gives emphasis to copyright law first sale doctrine stating that anyone who bought copyrighted work assumes the right to do things like modifying its cover or reselling it so long as the copy has been acquired through legal means. Their second argument, meanwhile, states that they the company must not be punished for innovating.

Reading this case got me into thinking that lawmakers must come up with a definitive set of rules as to what really constitutes copyright infringement in the virtual world. With almost everything being distributed, shared and streamed online, if there are online streaming sites that were able to operate legally, then it is safe to say that it won’t be long until legislators finally verify its legality, noting though that movies being streamed were obtained and purchased legally.