crybertraker is it legal?

Almost all the MMU students know about cybertracker, most of the students using it for sharing and downloading files through a P2P network system. we can download the software, games, movies, mp3 songs with in few seconds or minutes by using cybertracker.

The big question is whether this network system in MMU is legal or not? The answer is quiet obvious. since students are getting the electronic resources those have copy rights through the cyber tracker. with out make any kind of payment or go though any legal procedures. it is illegal.

Students using torrent software to access and download the files from the network. torrent ( u torrent , B torrent ) software already banded to use in many countries in order to avoid the illegal file sharing including in US. but in Malaysia there are no legal actions against using the torrent software.

MMU management can be charged under the intellectual property protection acts and copy right acts (copy right act 1987)

File-sharing website Megaupload shut down, NZ-based founder arrested

One of the world's biggest file-sharing websites, Megaupload, had been shut down and Seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 19, 2012 and Unavailable as of January 22, 2012.". Its German-born but New Zealand-based founder, Kim Dotcom (37), was arrested along with three others in Auckland.

He is charged with violating piracy laws.

Megaupload, Megavideo, MegaLive and MegaPorn were all made in to offline.  Megaupload was once the 13th most popular website in the world.

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site's founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

In response, the hackers group Anonymous has targeted the FBI and US Department of Justice websites.

The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.The feds say Megaupload violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a ‘mega’ way, refusing to fully comply with DMCA takedown notices.

Prosecutors accuse Megaupload’s owners of generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners. The authorities seized 18 domain names related to Megaupload and $50 million in assets.

New Zealand police arrested four of the alleged Megaupload employees in New Zealand on Thursday at the request of U.S. officials. Three of the alleged employees remain at large.

According to the indictment, the employees selectively complied with requests from copyright owners to remove infringing content. They would often remove a single link to an infringing video while leaving the actual video in place, according to court documents.

The legal issues in file sharing

The legal issues in file sharing involve violation of copyright laws as digital copies of copyrighted materials are transferred between users.

The application of national copyright laws to peer-to-peer and file sharing networks is of global significance. Peer-to-peer ("P2P") technology allows people worldwide to share files and data, and since this includes some that is subject to copyright, it has been targeted by rights holders, although peer-to-peer networks can be used for legitimate purposes.

The following are the general cyber-law violations by file sharing  

• Ambiguities in the interpretation of copyright law
• The new challenges posed by international communications and varying legislations
• Mass litigation and the development of processes for evidence and discovery
• Rapidly developing new technologies and uses, including file hosting sites
• Low barriers to entry by would-be sharers and the development of a mass usage of the technologies
• File sharing approaches developed in response to litigation against sharers, which obfuscate or hide the fact that sharing is happening, or the identities of those involved. For example: encryption and Darknets.

File sharing

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include manual sharing utilizing removable media, centralized servers on computer networks,World Wide Web-based hyper-linked documents, and the use of distributed peer-to-peer networking.

Share the copyrighted files with the out permission is against the intellectual property acts and breach of the copy rights laws.  in this blog I'm going to write some thing about file sharing and how it related with the cyber laws.