techapps-l: software ethics issue

["Lynn Basham" <LBasham@mde.k12.ms.us>]

This message has been posted to the Technology Applications Teacher Discussion List.
INDUSTRY UPDATE:

1. RIAA SENDS CORPORATIONS WARNING ON FILE TRADING
The Recording Industry Association of America is known for its public
fights against peer-to-peer Web sites such as Napster and Gnutella. But it
appears that the association is now licking its legal chops at Fortune
1,000 companies. According to a press release issued last week, the RIAA
is sending a letter to the CEOs of Fortune 1,000 corporations stating that
the organization is noticing a surprising number of song and movie files
being traded on corporate servers. The letter recommends that CEOs forward
the letter to their legal counsels and states that the RIAA "must
aggressively enforce our rights in cases of infringement." The letter
makes parallels to software piracy and reminds executives that song and
movie swapping is just as illegal. It also asks CEOs to consider using any
of several software programs listed at the end of the letter to help
corporate networks purge illegal files. While the RIAA has not yet made
any legal moves toward these corporations, they have targeted the business
world in the past, including an Arizona company that allegedly allowed its
employees to trade copyrighted files over its internal network. This
action adds to an already ambitious public campaign against piracy that
includes a section of the association's Web site encouraging parents to
talk to their kids about drugs, sex and file-swapping over the Internet. A
full copy of the RIAA's corporate letter can be found at
http://www.riaa.org in the news section.


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