Why if its illegal do they allow it?

Perhaps they make more money in advertising from such sites? I don’t know. I’m sure it’s all about some dumb sap making money somewhere.

The service providers allow illegal activity because if they make an effort to stop it, they become liable for any illegal activity that they do not catch.

then for the ones they do notice why dont the slow down there service or something along that lines to make it harder and then making the person/s give up on the download.

Well, some do try to prevent it from happening, ie blocking major sharing websites but on the other hand, it’s not acceptable to accuse a website to be pure evil (in fact they don’t provide only files that infringe copyright laws).

The goal is to prohibit downloading of such files, but since internet is such a vast place, tracking and determining if a files infringes the law is impossible. Not mentioning that that would also mean messing with one’s privacy.

but there is not privacy when it comes to internet (cookies) are a websites way of tracking your usage .
99% of things on iso hunt or pirate bay are illegal yet they allow it to happen .
and why is it that they say they will find you and fine you yet nothing is ever done about it

it would be bad for business if they stopped.

for example. ISP-A and ISP-B. both of them begin with the same amount of customers. ISP-A decides to block and filter whatever illegal activity you have in mind. customers flock to ISP-B.

i think. i wouldn’t know, but if i were an ISP, that would probably be my line of thought.

but if all providers blocked there wouldnt be competition if they blocked the same sites or am i being silly ? i know its not that simple

Because they make a lot more money on fast lines, than they make on slow connections, wich is all you really need if you dont download much…

sandystrachan, i think government would be imposing too much control over what an ISP does that way.

@LanceVance its better they do that than leave it till its too late and EVERYONE ends up having there computer privileges taken away because they have been found to download illegal content then the ISP’s wont have any money comin in

It’s not actually illegal to download and whatnot. It’s illegal to SHARE music, so if you download it, but you are not a “seeder” or sharing your downloads files on those sites you are actually not in violation. I suppose since it’s not TECHNICALLY illegal, just mostly immoral unless you’re also sharing it then maybe it’s worth more for their company to just ignore it?

its copyright laws tho that they can fall into if you just download and dont distribute the file so in a sense it is illegal because the site nor the seeders have the copyrights for the material they have uploaded and shared

tho my view is as long as you dont burn it or sell it then you are not breaking the law but i know that even this is wrong because i have infringed the copyrights of the file

Downloads, in and of themselves, are not illegal. I can download a perfectly legal copy of a song from somewhere like iTunes. If they stop all downloads, they will also stop legal downloads.

Comcast, for example, does not allow its Internet users to BitTorrent at all. People often use BitTorrent to download illegal copies of movies. However, the popular Linux operating system “Ubuntu” that many people use also distributes its updates through BitTorrent. As a result, people who like Ubuntu cannot use Comcast’s Internet service.

It is illegal to share (or take part in the sharing) of content for which you do not hold the copyright or a valid license. Forbidding all downloading to stop the sharing, though, is like saying that nobody can buy anything because some people sell drugs or stolen items.

i dont really mean the legal downloads and there are ways of the ISP’s knowing the legal and illegal downloads am not sayin stop all downloads and not sayin stop any downloads i just thought it was a question to ask

It is a question to ask. However, I’m not sure that they can tell the difference between legal and illegal downloads (somebody please tell me if they can).

If they can tell the difference, though, it would involve a lot of packet-sniffing, and by that I mean that they would have to nose into just about everything that people send or receive on the Internet. I’m not sure (even as a legal downloader) that I would want my provider that far into my business.

(For example, the provider would need to track my credit card use and look for proof that I had purchased the song. Then, they would have to look into who uploaded the song and see if they have a license. Most people, I believe, would be uncomfortable with their IP provider having such intimate details of their financial transactions. Plus, it’s a lot of work to keep up on all of that, should the Provider decide to do so, no doubt raising the price of their service and slowing the speed at the same time.)

i know that for some games they can tell what you are downloading from illegal sites there have been a few cases of it over here that people have been caught and have been told exactly what they have downloaded or whats been downloaded using there internet.and some films aswell not just games

It’s not necessarily the sites that are illegal. People use file-sharing sites and services to share and download legal content as well as illegal. If I made a song that I wanted to release into the wild, I might share it through KaZaa, for example. Shutting down those sites or services would render them useless for legitimate as well as illegitimate use.

I have no doubt that people have been caught and punished for sharing illegal content. However, it remains that the specific content is what is illegal, not the method or even the service used for its dispersal.

one way they can distinguish the plausibility of a legal/non downloading is for isp’s to monitor their users bandwidth. (like mine) COX in the Kansas area has now decided to step up their services by allocating more bandwidth to those who need it more instead of allocating a set amount. so, say i have a huge bandwidth plan, if at any point, i’m not using it they can take half of it from my and send it to someone else. Which sucks if i’m playing online games on the xbox360 or ps3 because then it begins to lag. but its their way of trying to find the places that use the most bandwidth to find those pesky illegal downloaders.

1. many things have legal uses but are used illegally. Companies often can’t control this, even if they wanted to (and in most cases they just turn a blind eye). For example, I have CDs I own the copyrights to. How am I supposed to copy them if I can’t buy a burner? So burners are legal, meant for people like me. But most people use them to copy CDs they do not have the copyrights to, or even an original copy.

2. Some of it is in fact legal. For example, making backup copies of software you bought legally, or transferring other types of files.

So it’s a combination of indifference and profit on the part of the provider, together with the impossibility of actually implementing the law. Even Microsoft cannot avoid people installing illegal copies of Windows, so you can’t really expect torrent hosts to do it.

3. An extra cause is sites breaking the law on purpose and registered in countries that do not follow these laws.

While this is a nice discussion of the legalities, possible legal punishment isn’t the only consequence. If the entertainment industry cannot make a profit, they won’t provide a product-that’s a simple economic fact. While they may be able to always make a profit on the likes of Celine Dion Idol winners and the Jonas Brothers with live performances and other activities, there won’t be any cutting edge or new music that has to be promoted. It wouldn’t be worth the financial risk.

So if young people want to hear more than bubble gum and belters in the future they better do the right thing now.

@galileogirl is it just young folk that download like?
i think you will find its more adults who download to sell

Correct, change that to mental adolescents

@laureth: the ISP can’t tell the difference between an MP3 song that the artist is giving away and an MP3 song that was ripped from a CD and is being shared in violation of copyright. The ISP can’t tell the difference between a bittorrent of a Linux distribution, a bittorrent of a TV show, and a bittorrent of a Microsoft Windows Vista installation DVD.

@galileogirl: The major record labels aren’t producing cutting-edge music now—all of that is on artist-owned or cooperatively-owned labels. The sooner the major record labels die, the better.

@cwilbur – Pretty much as I expected.

iligal downloading is only iligal if you sell them or give them away this is worng t-mobile broadband and some others are taking people to court if they download films music and softwear

No, it is also illegal if you simply download to keep. It is illegal because you are not the copyright holder (and, probably, neither is the person who streamed it to you) and as such, neither of you have the right to hold or distribute unlawful copies of the work.

There is probably more enforcement against those that sell or distribute (rather than against those who just keep the stuff) because those people are acting as hubs, spreading the illegal copies further (so they’re getting more bang for their buck by popping those folks first), but that doesn’t make it any less illegal if you don’t distribute.