UNINSTALLING PEER-TO-PEER SOFTWARE

Reset or uninstall your peer-to-peer software to keep it –and you—legal. When used properly, “peer-to-peer” file sharing is an exciting new technology. Unfortunately, P2P networks are often used improperly — usually for the illegal distribution of copyrighted content. If you’re involved in P2P file sharing, you may be using KaZaA software, GTK-Gnutella, LimeWire or some similar application.

You may not be aware of it, but when you registered as a P2P software user, you probably agreed to let the network use your computer as a distribution source of music files. In other words, if you’re like most P2P software users, you do more than simply download files. You probably also make files on your hard drive available for others to upload. Not only does this make you a potential illegal distributor, it also means that whenever you’re online, every other network user around the world (and there are tens of millions of them) has the ability to access your hard drive.

If you want to do the right thing—and, not incidentally, keep strangers out of your hard drive— you should disable your P2P software’s uploading capability. For more information, please visit: www.musicunited.org/kazaa.pdf.