Monday, September 8, 2008

The Futility of Digital Copy Prevention

The entertainment industry is trying to prevent the public from using illegal services like Napster. They will start to execute a plan for the prevention of copying digital contents. This will allow the public to use the contents from their computers for their own personal use, but will hinder the ability to share the contents with others. Unfortunately, digital files found on the internet are easily accessible to the public, making it easy to copy numerous files. The entertainment industry is trying to use all means to help save their business by making illegal downloading more difficult for the average user, hackers, and professionals. The entertainment industry realizes what they are up against with the different types of users but usually fails because of the software’s similar characteristics to other software’s making it easy for a hacker to break into that software and software’s like that. The entertainment industry is attempting to fix the problem in two ways: 1) “controlling the users’ computers” and 2) “enlisting the legal system.” They will be able to “control the users’ computers” by taking the decryption from the computer and putting it into the video monitor and speakers. The entertainment industry is trying to control the users’ hardware and software. The entertainment industry is unable to “enlist the legal system” or put the laws into action because the current laws do not affect other countries on the internet. The entertainment industry is trying to make illegal downloadable content unable to be copied by making the internet service providers be liable and having all digital content be registered. Even though the entertainment industry is coming up with new solutions to the problem, the results are still the same. Trying to find a way to stop the public from downloading pirated digital content is difficult. The only thing that the entertainment industry can do is embrace the facts.

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