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Online piracy or software piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted works digitally without permission, such as music, movies or software. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] History
Software crack illustration. Software cracking (known as "breaking" mostly in the 1980s [1]) is an act of removing copy protection from a software. [2] Copy protection can be removed by applying a specific crack. A crack can mean any tool that enables breaking software protection, a stolen product key, or guessed password. Cracking software ...
Video game piracy is the unauthorized copying and distributing of video game software, and is a form of copyright infringement. It is often cited as a major problem that video game publishers face when distributing their products, due to the ease of being able to distribute games for free, via torrenting or websites offering direct download ...
A business model that dissuades illegal file sharing is to make legal content downloading easy and cheap. Pirate websites often host malware which attaches itself to the files served . [ 175 ] If content is provided on legitimate sites and is reasonably priced, consumers are more likely to purchase media legally.
Similarly, the use of BitTorrent to procure illegal materials could potentially create liability for end users as an accomplice. BitTorrent files can be seen conceptually as a hyperlink. However, it can also be a very specific instruction for how to obtain content on the internet. BitTorrent may transmit or include illegal or copyrighted content.
In Germany, file sharing of copyrighted files, for example through peer-to-peer software like BitTorrent, is illegal. Internet service providers routinely transmit the identity of IP address owners to private lawyer firms who are then able to send "cease and desist" letters often demanding the offender to pay €1,000 fines or more.
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Napster was a free file sharing software created by college student Shawn Fanning to enable people to share and trade music files in mp3 format. Napster became hugely popular because it made it so easy to share and download music files. However, the heavy metal band Metallica sued the company for copyright infringement. [11]