Warning notices of illegal downloading or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing may not always be accurate, according to a UW study conducted in May.
The study was created to better understand copyright enforcement and how illegal downloading is actually tracked, said Michael Piatek, the lead graduate student on the project.
The study involved attempting to receive Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices. DMCA is a U.S. copyright law that was passed and signed into law by the Senate in October 1998. The law was created to lessen piracy and illegal manufacturing, copying and distributing of software. DMCA takedown notices are formal requests to stop illegal downloading or sharing.
During the UW study, more than 400 genuine DCMA takedown notices were received, although no downloading or file sharing occurred.
Unwarrented takedown notices are sent when monitoring agents identify users by their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on file sharing or downloading networks. Whether or not a user actually downloaded or shared a file is not monitored, causing innocent peer-to-peer (P2P) users to receive notices, Piatek said.
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