1. Internet Piracy

2. History In the 1980’s mail was used to distribute pirated material Pirated material originally consisted of copyrighted games, software, electronic equipment, and microchips

3. History Piracy was not considered a serious issue until the 1990’s In 1992 a video titled “Don’t Copy That Floppy” was used to combat piracy Piracy at this time mostly took place in the far east

4. Early Online Piracy In the 1990s Internet piracy first began Pirates used Bulletin Board Systems, or BBSes to distribute material over slow dial- up connections

5. Broadband In 1997 broadband Internet became popular With broadband Internet it was possible to pirate larger files faster With broadband even movies could be pirated online

6. Warez Warez is copyrighted material that is illegally distributed online Warez material can include music, movies, TV shows, software, or even books

7. Compression Pirates use mp3 compression technology to compress audio into small files Pirates use XviD digital video compression technology to compress videos so that they can be easily distributed online

8. Software Software pirates crack software, making it usable without having to purchase it Software pirate distribute entire retail software packages

9. Distribution Movie pirates can use P2P technology to transfer files directly to each other Swarming technology such as bit torrents is used to distribute large files to many people very quickly

10. Copyrights Downloading Warez is illegal Downloading copyrighted material from the internet can result in $30,000 to $50,000 fines

11. Fair Use Copyright laws sometimes limit your rights to fair use of material you purchase Copyright laws make it illegal for you to make digital copies of protected DVDs Fair use makes it legal for you to copy CDs and watch recorded TV at a later time

12. Legal Alternatives to Piracy Services such as CinemaNow, iFilm, MovieFlix, and iTunes Video allow you to download legally online for a fee Ironically, illegally pirated material is almost always of better quality and is distributed much more efficiently than these services